Residents have taken it upon themselves to fix Goodwood’s potholes, saying they’re tired of waiting for the City to do something about the problem.
Goodwood Neighbourhood Watch member Wouter Immelman says after hearing of an elderly couple waiting two months for the City to respond to complaints about potholes in Gertrude Street, he decided to act.
He put out a call on the street WhatsApp group, asking for contributions of sand, cement and stone. He got three offers of help.
“I’m very fond of my car and don’t like it when a wheel crunches into a hole,” he said.
On Wednesday September 23 the volunteers fixed 37 potholes.
On Tuesday October 6, ward councillor Franchesca Walker provided a plan describing how the City would be fixing potholes in wards 26 and 27. The plan included a map dividing Goodwood into five areas. Above the map are five lists with about 18 street names in each area.
“As we all know, the lockdown has delayed many projects, and service delivery was seriously hampered due to our staff only operating at 30% at the depots,” said Ms Walker.
“Our depots are almost back to normal, which will allow us to have more staff hanging in there with us. We need to work together as partners to bring about much-needed change.
Goodwood Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) chairman Faizel Petersen said residents were disappointed with the plan presented.
“The plan only covers a section between Voortrekker Road up to Milton Road, Jakes Gerwel Drive up to Giel Basson Drive. We’ve submitted numerous C3 (service request) calls from across Goodwood where there’s a need for potholes to be repaired, and this (plan) should cover the entire Goodwood,” said Mr Petersen.
Mayco member for transport Felicity Purchase said: “The transport directorate commenced with the pothole repair programme in Goodwood in the last week of September, to clear the backlog of repairs on potholes which were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the moment, we have 70% of our road depot staff back at work, with the rest returning imminently.
“Clearing of the backlog is being prioritised and being attended to as a matter of urgency and will improve as more staff return to the depots across the city.”
Maintenance work was scheduled to take place until April 2021, she said.