Station Hill resident raises concerns about poor service delivery

SIPHELELE NDZAMELA

FRUSTRATED with the continuous lack of service delivery in Station Hill, resident Henry Ruiters plans to move back to Port Elizabeth.

Bad roads, erratic refuse collection and overgrown parks are just some of the problems that have been bothering Ruiters since he moved to Station Hill three years ago.

"There's been no improvement since I arrived here,” he told TotT.

The state of the roads has driven him to distraction.

"Even the street where the mayor stays is in a bad condition, and the street where the ward councillor is staying is also in a bad state,” said Ruiters.

He was also troubled by the lack of sports facilities in Station Hill. The only sports field available is neglected and the grass is left to grow very long.

"It is dangerous for our kids. Snakes love Station Hill,” he said.

Ruiters said the police department at some stage helped improve the park but it generally is not maintained.

"If I was the principal of Port Alfred Primere Skool I would do something about the grass that stretches along the school fence,” he said.

People dump their refuse from grass and tree cutting in the same place as household rubbish, he said.

Collection of refuse in Station Hill is a problem as it is collected every two weeks rather than on a weekly basis, and this leads to the rubbish piling up and spreading in the streets.

"The situation is so bad that I don't even want my family to come and visit me this side,” said Ruiters.

Meetings were sometimes held to discuss solutions around these issues but are never implemented, he said.

Ruiters had planned to retire in Port Alfred but said the issue of lack of service delivery had made a great impact on his decision to leave.

In spite of the fact that he is about to move back to Port Elizabeth, he said he spoke out as "I feel I need to do something”.

Municipal spokesman Cecil Mbolekwa said a cleaning programme is due to start in December to ensure that all the affected areas are attended to.

"This is not just for the festive season but will be continuous,” said Mbolekwa.

"We had a meeting with business co-operatives to allocate a cleaning team for each area, especially Station Hill which has a very consistent culture of dumping.

"Nonetheless as municipality we are working hard to resolve these issues,” he added.