Dump continues to be a pain

Truck drivers are only allowed to arrive and load at the Tygerdal site at specific times of the day.
Activity at the Tygeral dump continues to cause headaches for its neighbours.

According to James Calitz, who lives nearby, the noise made by trucks coming and going and being loaded and offloaded is maddening, and efforts to get the City to do something have so far come to nought, (“No end in sight for dump”, March 7, Northern News, 2018).

“Things are getting worse by the day. One morning, last month, the service provider clocked in at 7am instead of 9am,” he said.
Mr Calitz said.

He said he had emailed the City many times asking for a solution to the noise problem.

“You will notice from my correspondence that nobody is really interested in solving this for some unknown reason,” he said.

In 2014, the City promised to close the site downTygeral and establish a new dump in Beaconvale site, which was originally going to open by November 2015 (“Dump saga draws to a close,” Tygertalk, May 21, 2014).

But those plans stalled after it was found March 2017, plans for a new City dump site in Beaconvale site posed a flood risk.(“Dump site plans hits a wobble”, Northern News, March 8 2017). 

The City’s catchment and stormwater management branch was to have done a study in March last year to gauge the true extent of the flooding. 

Sub-council 4 chairman Chris Jordaan said at the time: “Additional detailed flood-line modelling and analyses of the Elsieskraal canal is required for the Beaconvale drop-off and adjacent area, to determine the severity of the flood risk to the development.”

In the meantime, Mr Calitz said he and his neighbours continued to suffer.

“Despite there being speed humps,  these trucks still drive fast and you can hear the axles bumping against the pavement,” he said.

Mayco member for water and waste Xanthea Limberg said the City had introduced several restrictions on activities at the Tygerdal site to reduce noise:

– The woodchipping is only allowed from 9am to 3pm from Monday to Friday; from 9am until noon on Saturdays, and it is not allowed on Sundays or public holidays, unless with prior approval.

– No arrival and loading of trucks earlier than 9am from Monday to Saturday; no arrival and loading of trucks later than 3pm from Monday to Friday; no arrival and loading of trucks later than noon on Saturdays; no trucks allowed on Sundays or public, unless with prior approval.

Ms Limberg said contractors using the facility as well as staff have been notified of these rules.

“The City will also send reminders to those contractors who use the site frequently.”

She said the City hoped to find an alternative site by either next year or the following year.