THE PUBLIC MAY STILL USE THE "WHITE ROAD" WITHOUT FEAR OF CRIMINAL
PROSECUTION

Langebaan residents would have noticed the recent erection of signage on the "white road" at both the Farmhouse and Park Drive ends indicating that the road is closed. However, this refers merely to its realignment as a provincial road. This road was originally proclaimed as a provincial road in the 1960's but followed the route of a much older public thoroughfare. It was effectively realigned along Sunbird Avenue and Park Drive in 1991, but it seems to have taken the provincial roads department 20 years to erect the signage and to conclude the realignment process - hence the recent notices! In its application to the Cape High Court the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association argues that in terms of applicable law the realignment of the provincial road has merely returned the route to its original status as a public thoroughfare, which it has been for hundreds of years. The Association's legal team are in possession of old maps going back as far as 1796 showing this route in continual public use for over two centuries. Such immemorial use is generally recognised by the courts as establishing an "immemorial right" and has served as the basis for the Courts finding in favour of the public for example in the recent Noetzie case in Knysna which has strong parallels with the Langebaan case and where the landowner also attempted to interfere with an established immemorial public thoroughfare to beach areas. Section 13 of the Integrated Coastal Management Act, 2008 specifically recognises the public's right of reasonable access to coastal public property, such as the beach at Klein Oostewal

Following recent attempts by the landowner, Dormell Properties, to close the "white road" to public access, and also to deny access across its land to the beach at Klein Oostewal, the Cape High Court ordered on 24 June 2011 in response to an urgent application that pending a full hearing of the application brought against Dormell Properties by the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association Dormell may not proceed with criminal charges against any member of the public relating to trespass and malicious damage to property in respect of the portion of the "white road" in dispute. Dormell Properties was ordered to file its opposing papers by 14 July 2011, but it ignored the Court Order and failed to do so.  Attempts to ascertain Dormell's defence in the matter have had no success.  Dormell Properties still has provided no reason for closing the road.  Its game seems to be one of delay and frustration of the rights of the public. The date for the Cape High Court hearing has now been set for 22 November 2011. 

It is important that the general public are not misled by signage recently erected by Province 20 years after the event into believing that the "white road" thoroughfare is now "closed" for public use and / or that the public rights that have existed over that portion of the road have been terminated. That is certainly not the case, despite what Dormell Properties would have us believe.  The question therefore arises as to why this signage should have been erected at this particular point in time and in the midst of litigation over the status of this road. Remember, the same landowner in 2009 attempted to erect a boom on Park Drive and was obliged on that occasion to beat a hasty retreat.  The Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association has every reason to believe that the same will be the case in this matter and that the public's rights will soon be restored, this time with the sanction of the High Court.

UPDATE - July 7th 2011

Court Order - Please Print and read.

http://www.savesharkbay.org/LinkClick.aspx?link=CourtOrder+Langebaan.pdf&tabid=1183&mid=2075


NEWSFLASH: SHARK BAY - July 1st 2011

In an urgent application brought in the Cape High Court by the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association against Dormell Properties 391, the owners of Remainder of Oostewal 292, and  heard before Judge Baartman (Case Number 11859/2011) the Court has upheld the right of the public, pending a hearing of the application,  to continue to use the "white road" without risk of prosecution as threatened by the landowner. Specifically the Court on 24 June 2011 has ordered as follows:

1.      Dormell Properties 391 (Pty) Ltd is granted opportunity until 14 July 2011 to file an opposing affidavit;

2.      Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association may file a replying affidavit by 25 July 2011;

3.      The application shall be heard on a date to be arranged with the Judge President;

4.      Costs to stand over for later determination; and

5.      Pending the hearing, Dormell Properties 391 (Pty) Ltd shall not proceed with the laying of criminal charges, as foreshadowed in their letter to the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association, against any member of the public relating to trespass and/or malicious damage to property in respect of the portion of the road which is in dispute.

In the meantime, the window for the submission of responding statements following the appeal by the landowners against the refusal of township development permission on the Oostewal site closed on 27 June 2011. A number of responding statements have been registered, amongst others from SANParks and the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association as well as private individuals. The responding statement of the Langebaan Ratepayers' and
Residents' Association is comprehensive (it runs to 32 pages) and will be posted on the website www.lrra.co.za in due course. Please access it and acquaint yourself with the comprehensive legal and other grounds for opposing this appeal.

Thanks again for your support. The battle continues to prevent gratuitous commercial development at the expense of what remains of our natural heritage.

NEWSFLASH: SHARK BAY - June 14th 2011

Following the closure on or about 15 May 2011 of the "White Road" across the Oostewal 292 property by the landowner, a route to Shark Bay beach and other fishing and recreational spots along the lagoon shore in use since time immemorial, the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association is proceeding in the matter. The case is scheduled to be heard in the Cape High Court on 20 June 2011.

We will keep the public posted via the website. Support us in protecting your rights as ordinary, law-abiding citizens! 

NEWSFLASH: SHARK BAY - June 1st 2011

Shark Bay just will not go away and the battle to defend this unique site from development goes on.

As reported previously the landowner, having in April 2011 been refused environmental permission to develop on the property, signalled his intention to appeal the ruling by the Department of  Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. That appeal was lodged on 27 May 2011 and interested and affected parties have until midnight (5  minutes before in fact!) on 27 June 2011 to lodge responding statements.  The appeal is available on the website of Messrs Doug Jeffery Environmental Consultants at www.dougjeff.co.za  . You are encouraged to acquaint yourself with the substance and grounds of the appeal.  The appeal documents are being studied by interested and affected parties at present and you will be kept abreast of developments by way of the website as matters progress.

In the meantime the landowner has, as also previously reported, proceeded with the clearing of two sites on the property, in total apparently exceeding the threshold 300 m2 that triggers a listed activity in terms of NEMA. The law enforcement division of the Department, having issued a Warning Letter in response to a formal complaint by the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association (LRRA) and following a site visit by an environmental officer on 13 April 2011 inexplicably decided, apparently largely on information made available by the landowner's own consultants, not to proceed with the matter. In respect of environmental matters these were apparently the same consultants who had, in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) submitted in support of the original development proposal, found generally in favour of the proposed Shark Bay development since refused by the Department. The grounds for the Department's decision not to proceed with the complaint against current activities on the site have been challenged by the complainants and the Department's response is awaited. It is also alleged by interested and affected parties that the approval by the Saldanha Bay Municipality of plans for the development currently taking place on the Oostewal site collide with provisions of the Land Use Planning Ordinance (LUPO) (1985) which regulates such matters. This has been referred by the LRRA both to Province and to the Saldanha Bay Municipality. The landowner at present appears simultaneously to be pursuing two parallel and mutually exclusive development options on the Oostewal site, namely his current construction and related activities on the one hand that did not form part of the proposed development configuration in his original development proposal, and on the other hand his appeal against the environmental ruling against township development on the site as per his original proposal. This ambivalent approach will have implications going forward.



As part of his latest package of actions the landowner has also closed and locked gates on the White Road along the lagoon shore as previously reported. This also arguably constitutes a departure from the development configuration proposed by the landowner in his original development proposal. The legal representative of the Langebaan Ratepayers' and Residents' Association had in last week arranged a meeting with the landowner and/or his legal representatives in regard to the closure of this road to avoid having to resort to litigation but the meeting was thereafter called off by the landowner and/or his legal representative. As a consequence LRRA's legal team were obliged to place the landowner on terms to restore customary public access along the White Road. The landowner has failed to respond and matters are proceeding. You will remember that the landowner has on a previous occasion claimed the right to interdict traffic flow to the West Coast National Park along Park Drive that crosses his property but was obliged to retreat and remove his boom when it was shown he had no right to do so. As the LRRA provides further information on progress on the issue of the White Road you will be kept informed via the website.


Development of the Oostewal site has successfully been resisted for decades. Interested and affected parties in the matter have no intention whatever of relenting now but are more determined now than ever to drive matters once
and for all to a successful and permanent conclusion. Please keep in touch with this website for further updates and lend us your further valuable support as required. Of course it is irritating to be constantly confronted
with the persistent and intractable Oostewal issue but remember, as Winston Churchill said:  "....never give in except to convictions of ....good sense!..." We, and the many before us that have resisted development on Oostewal 292 for 20 years or more, believe that opposing development on Remainder Oostewal 292 and standing up for the protection of the rights of the community and for the protection of the environment that sustains it makes eminent "good sense"!  

Welcome to the site for objecting to the proposed development of Oesterwal 292 - known to many people as Shark Bay or Klein Oesterwal. Recently the original Section 28 Application under the name of "Bahia Sardinia" which was sent back to the developers and were instructed to re-apply under Section 24 of NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) under their new name "Shark Bay!" 

Located in Langebaan on the doorstep of the West Coast National Park, in South Africa, this beautiful part of the lagoon plays host to 1000's of visitors each year seeking peace and tranquility in safe, warm water or beautiful flower meadows.

The Shark Bay site has a deep ongoing history of court cases, objections, planning applications and environmental issues.

The aim of this website is to provide comprehensive and non political views about the proposed destruction of one of South Africa's prime environmental areas.

The Save Shark Bay website has since the original application stayed away from discussing the person behind the scheme but lately the owner, Riccardo Scappelini, has been voicing his opinions openly and we now see no reason but to refer to the individual and no longer the "company."

Langebaan is currently confronted with a development proposal from Riccardo's Dormell Properties 391 (Pty) Ltd operating as Shark Bay for the development of in excess of 100 elite residential housing erven in the buffer zone to the south of Stompneusrots between the town and the West Coast National Park and on the south eastern shore of Langebaan Lagoon - a Ramsar site of international conservation significance. This land is currently reflected in the proposed local 2007 Zoning Scheme as agricultural land and in the 2004 Spatial Development Framework still current as buffer conservation land category 2. Prior similar proposals in respect of the same land on the part of earlier developers have been opposed and interdicted by Order of Court.

The NEW proposal has already met with significant opposition from residents, the West Coast National Park, West Coast Biosphere, the Langebaan Rate Payers Association and the National Parks Trust. With approximately 50% of the available erven in Langebaan town vacant, and a large tract of vacant and disused agricultural land within the urban edge within the centre of Langebaan, the development would mean the expansion southward of the urban edge into a sensitive area when other less environmentally and aesthetically sensitive options exist, most notably to the north and east of the town should the need arise.

Objectors maintain that the development would constitute a clear instance of unwarranted urban sprawl, thus flying in the face of the intent and letter of the Provincial Spatial Development Framework whose imperative amongst others is toward in-fill development in the interests of the conservation of the biosphere and of containing the resource costs of providing infrastructure and other services.

As things stand at present it appears that the rapid development of erven in Greater Langebaan has led to a situation where the construction of housing on existing vacant erven could result in a doubling of the functional population of the town – and that without setting out a single new erf. This would have severe implications, not least for the water resources in the area that lies on a semi-desert coastline which already is particularly vulnerable to the stresses of climate change.

The land has in the past been identified for possible incorporation in the West Coast National Park, thereby containing the southern extremity of the town to the north of the Stompneusrots mini-escarpment. Objectors are adamant that the EIA process currently underway should clearly interrogate the need for the development at all relative to other softer options consistent with sound environmental and physical planning and provide a clear and convincing motivation for its incorporation into the built environment rather than into the National Park where it would be accessible to all, and particularly to future generations. Exotic development on the West Coast is eroding the once unique character of this area and the sense of place of the south-eastern shore of Langebaan Lagoon is now directly under threat. When will the destruction of our unique South African heritage stop?

Of great concern must be the fact that development proposals are currently being entertained and adjudicated piecemeal for the Greater Langebaan area outside of the context of an Environmental Management Plan such as provided for in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

Over the next few days, weeks & months, this site will become the site for all things to do with this objectionable application.

Please take time to 1) REGISTER and 2) OBJECT to this terrible abuse of our natural land.

If you have any questions, please make a posting in the FORUM and we will endeavour to answer them for you.

Regards
The SaveSharkBay.org team

Who We Are

The Save Shark Bay team is made up of an informal group of Langebaan residents. At no time do we feel that we have a mandate to speak for the community as a whole but certainly do represent the grass roots feelings of Langebaaners. What we are able to do is to promote the safe management of the Site and to maintain Shark Bay's natural beauty and to make introductions between various Parties.

We do not pretend to represent "Facts" but only Legal Opinions of our esteemed Environmental Lawyers and Advocates. Facts are often used as a wedge to change public opinion, yet these "Facts" are purely opinion and we do not believe in stating what we stand by as facts, just "The Right Thing to Do!"

The SaveSharkBay.org wants to see the land remain as it is and that NOBODY will destroy the natural beauty of this amazing place.

Recently the Langebaan Action Group was adopted as a SUB COMMITTEE of the Langebaan Rate Payers Association. 

SSB