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B u r g e r Wednesday 21 March 2012
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School opened
Learners of Melk bosstrand High School could finally enjoy their new school building after the school was officially opened on Monday. Fol lowing the ribbon cutting ceremony by the princi pal, Daniel Ross, local ward councillor, Marissa Jansen van Vuuren, re leased 20 white doves to great applause from the small crowd gathered. The learners shared in the festivities by giving flight to several balloons. Photo: Leon Steenkamp
) Parties can now have say on plan
Atlantis landfill doubt LEON STEENKAMP
Residents and other interested parties have the opportunity to comment on the findings of the latest environmental impact study report regarding the proposed new landfill site near Atlantis. The process of deciding where to situate a new landfill site that can replace the Visserhok landfill site once it reaches capacity in 2013 has been a controversial subject for the last five years. The farm Brakkefontein (situat-
ed 6,5km south of Atlantis) and Kalbaskraal (situated further north towards Philadelphia) are the two sites considered for the regional landfill site. In July 2007 the department of environmental affairs decided to establish the landfill site at the Atlantis site (on the farm Brakkefontein). A public outcry from Atlantis, Melkbosstrand, Witsand, Dassenberg and Klein Zoute River Farm residents saw 350 appeals submitted to the office of the then Western Cape minister of environment, planning and economic development, Tasneem Essop.
This led to her successor Pierre Uys overruling the decision by the department of environmental affairs replacing it with a decision to move the landfill site to Kalbaskraal. This action was challenged by Astral Operations Ltd, Pioneer Foods and the Bottelfontein Action Group who asked the Cape High Court to set aside the appeal process on which Uys’s decision was based as well as the decision itself. Although the Melkbosstrand Ratepayers’ Association (MRA) initially indicated that it would fight the court order, a lack of funds pre-
vented them from taking the litigation process further. Subsequently the current minister of environmental affairs Anton Bredell has been asked to review the case in its entirety, retracing the process until before Uys made his decision. In reconsidering the application for both sites Bredell has requested an additional report to ensure that the information in the final environmental impact report is still relevant. It is the findings of this report that is now part of the public participation process.
Melkbosstrand resident Willem Steenkamp has been following the process since the beginning and campaigning against the site being located at Atlantis. Steenkamp is dubious about the fact that the same consultants have been appointed to compile the second report. “It is strange that CCA Environmental has been appointed as the independent consultant in this regard as they would not give a recommendation that would contradict the findings in their initial report,” Steenkamp claims. . To page 2.