The days of local play-parks being used as havens for vandals and criminals and as illegal dumping sites will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the plans of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s Parks Sub-directorate to appoint caretakers in each park across the City. Following a supply chain management process, the City will appoint a service provider that will provide the Sub-directorate with the required caretakers.
This process is in line with two of the pillars of the Integrated Development Plan: creating a safe and a caring City. In an attempt to create a conducive environment for children and curb illegal dumping, the City adopted a programme to convert illegal dumping sites into well equipped play-parks for children. “Clean and maintained parks are critical to the well being of our residents. This government is committed to improving service delivery for every community,” said the Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Councillor Athol Trollip.
Ever since the programme started, however, the challenges of vandalism and criminal activities in different parks across the City have been highlighted.
Now the service provider that will be appointed, will work hand in hand with the Municipality’s Parks Sub-directorate and Safety and Security Directorate to address these.
The caretakers will monitor the correct usage of parks with playground equipment and outdoor gyms in an effort to improve the safety of reduce injuries among the user of the park, particularly children. They will also ensure that the parks are kept clean and neat, and report unsafe park infrastructure. The programme will cost the City R2 million per financial year.
The scope of work for the caretakers will be as follows:
- Opening and closing of parks gates of a park or group of parks allocated, where applicable;
- Monitoring to ensure correct usage of outdoor gyms to ensure adherence to age restrictions as per signage on the equipment.
- Encouraging healthy conduct and prohibiting unacceptable behaviour within the park.
- Monitoring of park infrastructure such as outdoor gyms and playground equipment, preventing misuse of these, the park environment and unacceptable conduct.
- Keeping the park/s neat and clean daily by picking up litter, broken bottles, etc. and disposing of such in a bin or refuse bag that will be provided by the Municipality, as well as general parks maintenance duties
- Reporting any misuse of playground items, the park environment and unacceptable conduct to the designated official and/or SAPS, where intervention of law enforcement is urgently required.
- Preventing or discouraging illegal dumping.
The caretakers will be sourced within the areas surrounding the parks.
NMB Communications
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