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Rob Munro
Posts:39
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| 09/25/2009 4:51 PM |
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Lessons Learned!
A lot has been happening on the Shark Bay front lately and you will be glad to know that the Team has been busy and on the ball. A boom was erected at the top of the hill by the owner of the land, Riccardo Scapilini. This caused great outrage throughout the community and we decided to challenge the opinions of his "esteemed" consultants once again and guess what??? They have stuffed the whole thing up once again. A brief history of this account can be found on the site. www.savesharkbay.org
Furthermore, people are being told that the Scoping Report has been approved, this is folly and total nonsense! In fact, we are of the understanding that it has in fact, for now, been rejected!
The status of the land and now that of BOTH roads leading through it is unquestionably defined. To try and claim anything different is grossly incompetent. The Public has rights and we will ensure that they are upheld and our access across or through this land open.
Here is our official response;
“The confirmation by the Department of Transport and Public Works of the Western Cape that the road that Ricardo Scarpelini and his fellow-owners of the remainder of Oostewal 292 wanted to close and to claim as their private fiefdom is indeed public property and a public road, as we have from the start insisted but that they have vehemently denied brings to a close yet another chapter in the saga of Klein Oostewal/Shark Bay. A number of lessons may be derived form the latest confrontation, now resolved in favour of the community:
1. The owners and prospective developers have shown little grasp of the facts and even less interest in researching them properly and determining what their rights are and indeed what the rights of others affected by their actions are. They appear either yet again to have been poorly advised or unbelievably cynical and arrogant, or both, in their approach to the erection of the boom on Park Drive;
2. For people claiming kinship with this community in an attempt to gain support for their development proposals, their apparent preparedness to place in jeopardy the interests of the entire tourism economy of this town for whom Park Drive, the road between the West Coast National Park that they were threatening to close, is an arterial route is indeed strange. In pursuing their selfish purpose they were fully prepared to attempt to exclude the general public from enjoying the scenic and floral beauty along this road. This must place in question their commitment going forward to the principles of public-spiritedness, conservation and wise use that are particularly important in the management of so environmentally significant a piece of buffer lagoon-side land as Oostewal 292 that they aggressively wish to despoil with housing development. Where indeed does greed end and to what lengths are developers prepared to go to advance their own selfish interests at the expense both of the environment and of the local community?
This is not the final battle to save Shark Bay/Klein Oostewal for the community and as a part of the unique lagoon heritage that should define Langebaan. There will inevitably be other assaults on the environment and on the community’s broader rights and interests before responsibility prevails. It is encouraging though that good citizens all over the West Coast, as well as friends of the West Coast that know and understand its unique qualities and that are able to see beyond petty self interest and the gratuitous pursuit of individual wealth, are rising to the challenge and saying “enough!” We cannot allow developers cynically to destroy what little remains, trample on public rights in the process, and then move on to wreak their havoc elsewhere. We have no desire that the shores of Langebaan should become a clone of the Mediterranean coast or anywhere else for that matter. Langebaan is unique and we are committed to ensuring that it retains its uniqueness.”
Yours
The Save Shark Bay Team
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