Sutcliffe takes on city manager
Row erupts over beachfront plans
FORMER eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe has gone head-to-head with city boss, S’bu Sithole, over a change in plan for the second phase of Durban’s beachfront upgrade.
One is arguing safety, the other costs.
The municipality’s initial plan during Sutcliffe’s term of office was to relocate the paddling pools at Laguna Beach to Blue Lagoon, allowing for the widening of the promenade for cyclists, walkers and families to enjoy.
But the amended proposal approved by the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Affairs on April 10, is for the pools to be revamped instead and for the promenade to be narrowed in that section from 12m to 4.2m.
The municipality’s project manager and deputy head of the Strategic Projects Unit, Mike Andrews, attributed the change to costs. He said the new pools would cost a minimum of R30 million, whereas refurbishing the existing ones would cost about R4m.
Sutcliffe has drafted an appeal to MEC Meshack Radebe to revert to the original plan to demolish the pools, as he considered them to be “unsafe and part of the apartheid planning heritage we had strived to rid our city of ”.
In an e-mail sent out yesterday, Sutcliffe urged all interested parties to appeal against the decision. He attached a copy of the appeal he intends submitting before April 30 – the deadline for objections.
He argued that the redesign of the promenade was “poor planning and could well compromise the safety of bathers and create a serious pinch point”.
He said this would become evident during the East Coast Radio Big Walk on May 26, as participants would be forced to leave the promenade and walk on the road at the Laguna pools. “This goes against
the The approved amendments, keeping the Laguna pools, involve:
reducing the width of the promenade from 12m to about 4.3m next to the pools and building that walkway;
removing the centre meridian and on-street parking, as illustrated in the graphic, to reduce the overall width of Snell Parade to accommodate the walkway; motivation we made to secure funds from the Non-Motorised Fund of national government in order to build the promenade,” he said.
“Cyclists, joggers, families and those who care for young children, who in some cases have been brutalised in some of our paddling pools designed and built under apartheid, should appeal against this decision and request that the realignment to retain Laguna Pools not be allowed.”
Sutcliffe said he would also write to mayor James Nxumalo asking him to investigate which officials should be held “directly responsible for the significant waste of money (on security, holding costs, etc) while the city pursued this realignment”.
“This is a waste of money that could well run into tens of millions of rand,” he argued.
According to a municipality report in March last year, when the second phase of the beachfront upgrade had begun on the northern section – from Country Club Beach to Blue Lagoon – the R80m upgrade included the extension of the promenade to Blue Lagoon, new parking areas, landscaping, improved lighting, street furniture, paving, new braai facilities and new paddling pools at Blue Lagoon.
The plan was announced in early 2011 and Vumani Civils was given the nod to carry out the project.
In the report, Andrews said the project was expected to be completed in
removing the traffic circle immediately south of the Laguna pools;
re-configuring existing parking;
reducing the width of the promenade from 12m to about 7m at the southern pinch point;
upgrading Laguna Beach;
retaining the existing sewer pump station, vehicle ramp and kiosk. March this year.
He said about R75m had been spent in the first phase on the lengthening and widening of the promenade, allowing for ease of movement.
According to a letter from the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs to the municipality dated April 10, this was the third change the municipality had applied for to the layout plan. It applied for environmental authorisation on February 6.
The department’s key decision factors were that:
The municipality, after an appeal from its Parks Department, had decided to retain the Laguna pools rather than demolish and relocate them to Blue Lagoon.
Retention of the pools, while potentially creating a “pinch point”, would not have any new or additional impacts and was therefore deemed nonsubstantive.
Keeping the pools was added as an alternative as the municipality would like to retain the option to relocate the pools in the future.
In his draft appeal, Sutcliffe said he had written to Sithole on February 20, voicing concern and objection to the municipality’s application as he feared that the change would in time “backfire on us”.
He said Sithole’s response was that, taking into account all budget considerations, the revamping option was the most favourable and that the design changes did not compromise the overall objectives of the beachfront upgrade.
Sithole apparently also said that when the previous design was formulated, most line departments that would have commented on the design were not consulted and their input was not factored in.
He said this omission could have influenced their prior decisions about the cost benefit of revamping Laguna pools instead of demolishing them.
Sutcliffe vehemently denied lack of consultation and be- lieves Sithole was “misled by officials who were aggrieved that the apartheid era beachfront was being transformed”.
Sutcliffe said the matter was not properly investigated. He felt there was significant evidence that the municipality’s professional officials had serious problems with the alternative proposed layout, and suggested it could have serious and negative effects.
He said a senior official had warned that a 5m promenade was inadequate and problematic. Other officials, he said, had indicated that the Laguna pools were in the wrong place and had been the subject of costly emergency protection over the years.
Andrews said the municipality decided not to demolish the pools to save on the cost of building new pools at Blue Lagoon. “While the pools, like much of the city’s infrastructure, were built in the apartheid era to serve the African community, the pools continued to be well utilised post apartheid,” he said.
Andrews said the cost of developing the new pools was going to be part of a separate contract and was not included in the R80m phase two quote.
“The city will simply not be proceeding with this separate contract.”
He said the area would be opened to the public on June 1, weather permitting.