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beez
Posts:2
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| 02/08/2010 1:24 PM |
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Hi
Now i appreciate what Rob has done since a year or more ago when i joined the forum.
However, does ANYONE know what is going on with the proposed development? i don't.
I get an email with a long document, i have no idea what "side" the environmental company authoring the doc is, i have no idea what the name of the guy who plans to develop is, i have no idea what i must do i order to contribute, i have no idea what the proposed meeting in Langebaan is about, and on top of all that, i have no idea what the Erratum email just received is about...
Rob, please make it a no brainer...write in one paragraph what is going on...what people against the development should do to contribute.
Finally, about 2 weeks ago, there were a ZILLION kiters at shark bay, why does no one hand out a no brainer explanation to them, saying that soon their right to kite there is going to be curtailed by a greedy Italian developer.
regards
beez |
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Site Admin
Posts:6
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| 02/09/2010 12:09 PM |
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“Dear Concerned Citizens,
Following many enquiries as to the current state of play regarding the proposed Shark Bay development and real concerns at the fact that this thing just will not go away the process is explained briefly below:
The EIA process following application by the proposer of the development consists basically of two steps. The first step is the so-called “Scoping Phase” in which the applicant for the development permission is required to identify key issues to be investigated and to map out the process to be followed in carrying out the EIA, including the identification for example of the subject experts to be retained on the team to do the investigation. This is the process that was underway until October 2009. Contributors to this site, environmental bodies and community organisations registered well over a thousand objections to the content and deficiencies of the Scoping Report provided at the conclusion of the scoping phase by the professional team appointed by the applicant. Informed by these comments and the professional team’s responses the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning gave the go-ahead on 9 October 2009 for the next phase, namely the EIA investigation itself, subject to an extensive list of explicit requirements and obligations upon the applicant to inform the decision the Department will have to make as to whether or not to grant the required environmental permission in terms of NEMA for development of the restante of Oostewal 292 or not. These requirements substantially address the many concerns and deficiencies that came out in the popular participation process and are set out in the letter from DEA & DP dated 9 October 2009 posted by us on this website, and provide a basis against which the Environmental Impact Assessment Report produced in the EIA phase is to be adjudicated. The questions that need to be addressed by Interested and Affected Parties are essentially:
1. Has the EIA investigation and Report addressed the key issues identified for attention in the Scoping Report and the Department’s letter of 9 October 2009 in an objective and unbiased way as required by the law?; and
2. Has a sufficient environmental case been made for development of the site in accordance with the proposal of the applicant for the development of the Restante of Oostewal 292 otherwise variously referred to as the Baja Sardinia/Shark Bay/ Klein Oostewal development?
The “Open Day” scheduled for Friday 12 February 2009 between 15h00 and 20h00 at the Langebaan Library Auditorium is a part of the required popular participation process for the EIA phase at which the consultants will be available to respond to questions and discuss their draft EIA Report available online on the Doug Jeffery website and for viewing at the Public Library (Langebaan) and the Municipal Offices (Langebaan). Please be there and have your say! Thereafter there will be time until 10 March 2010 for submission of considered written comment.
2010 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Biodiversity. South Africa’s responsibilities and intentions in terms of its own Year of Biodiversity and particularly as a founding member of the Ramsar convention on wetlands (Langebaan Lagoon is of course a registered Ramsar international wetland) were set out in a speech by our own Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs on 1 February 2010. Let us as concerned citizens not fail in our duty in this of all years to resist gratuitous development in the unique Langebaan lagoon wetland biosphere.
As before we encourage concerned citizens to keep in touch with this website, engage with the EIA process and make your very many voices heard. Development of the Klein Oostewal site on the shore of Langebaan Lagoon has been successfully, consistently and vehemently opposed on reasoned and motivated grounds by the Langebaan community, conservation authorities and others since the 1980’s. |
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Ashleigh1
Posts:2
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| 02/10/2010 10:05 AM |
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Dear Plain English. .. I don't think it is wise to NOT read the whole report. if you want to object you should know what you are objecting to, and not just follow the others like a sheep... It's actually very interesting....
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Site Admin
Posts:6
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| 02/11/2010 3:33 PM |
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Agreed, we also feel it is unwise to NOT read the whole documents and even more so the entire requirements the DEA&DP set out to the applicant! Makes great reading, you can find this under documents and also on the front page! Enjoy!
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