Blackheath City Improvement District News – August 2014

Welcome to the August edition of the Blackheath City Improvement District Newsletter.

Blackheath is bustling with the sound of construction and heavy vehicles, as the main roads are decorated with construction workers and kerbstones.  Long standing storm water issues including channels and catch pits and gulleys are being dealt with and new infrastructure is slowly appearing to decorate our once seriously understated roadways.

Some concerns relating to the width of roadways and the provision of taxi and bus pull off areas have been raised as well as stacking points.  The City is strong on their stance that companies and business should provide the stacking facilities for delivery vehicles on their own premises, although it is our attitude that this is not always possible and that in a Heavy Industrial Area like Blackheath we should be more flexible in our approach by making provision for queueing delivery and despatch vehicles.

There are formal areas that trucks can stack along Wimbledon and Range Roads and we will continue to negotiate the above concerns with the City and its contractors to ensure that the new road infrastructure supports business in Blackheath whilst coping with the changes in use and traffic volumes in a safe and beneficial manner.

It is almost time for our AGM and annual feedback session where we will welcome presentations and feedback from Eskom and the City relating to the Business Retention Survey that was carried out in partnership between the City of Cape Town’s Economic Development Directorate and the Blackheath City Improvement District (BCID).  We will also, as always take advantage of this opportunity to provide feedback to members of the BCID and property owners about our successes to end June 2014 and set our priorities in the form of our Implementation plan and budgets for the 2015 – 2016 financial year.