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16 July 2008.

Issued for and on behalf of the Noordhoek Environmental Action Group, NEAG.

NEAG is satisfied that the courts have identified and forced the guilty party, namely the Noordhoek Farm Village trustees (the Old Cape Farm Trust – the trust) and its primary trustee, Jeremy Wiley, to remove his illegal car park and other illegal construction at the Noordhoek Farm Village.

NEAG has perused the media release issued by the trust, dated 11h July, that mischievously attempts to place the blame of the removal of the car park on NEAG. We feel this flagrant misrepresentation of the facts needs to be corrected and we trust this release will provide the true facts. It is important that this document is read alongside the egregious press release from the trust. (see post in full below)

NEAG is well aware of the impact of this court case on the tenants and visitors to the Farm Village and we reiterate our earlier statements that we shall work towards collective solutions to this problem.

However NEAG and its executive are concerned that we are being projected as the guilty party. This is ironic, given that we won the court case against this illegal car park and signage at the village. We are not in any way responsible for the closure of various aspects of the farm village, specifically the car wash and nursery. Our court case was solely directed at the illegal car park on space reserved for public use and the matter of illegal signage.

The fact that the court ruled to our behalf and benefit and ordered the demolition of the illegal car park and signage has no bearing whatsoever on the car wash or nursery. While these may indeed be illegal, they played no part whatsoever in the court case. The decision to remove them is that of the trust alone. The car wash could certainly be situated elsewhere on the property and it is misleading and egregious to blame us for the closure of this or any other enterprise. The fact that they were situated illegally on open space has nothing to do with us at all.

Regarding the recycling facility that we manage, we feel that this is a facility on land that has been set aside specifically for the use of the public. As such we are convinced that there is no reason at all to close it. If it is closed it will only be closed because the trust forces us to do so. We must bear in mind that the use of public open space is to be decided by the public and not by individual land-owners.

It is notable that NEAG and the predecessor of the Noordhoek Conservancy, the Noordhoek District Civic Association have raised concerns with the parking situation at the farm village for years, both in direct representations to council and as part of the comment process when expansion plans have been presented. It is notable that the trustees of the farm village have continuously failed to act on or take note of our concerns.

It is also remarkable that the trust has failed to implement parking plans that were a condition of approval of the development by the local authority in 1996. This implies that developments implemented since that time may also be illegal. It is also notable that the trustees of the farm village have seen fit to permit the expansion of several of the facilities to beyond their approved footprint. We suggest that a full audit of the permitted retail areas be undertaken in order that this can be calculated against the permitted parking footprint. We believe such an audit would be instructive.

It is furthermore remarkable that the Farm village has unilaterally removed existing permitted parking on its own behest, failing to consult either the local authority, ourselves or the visiting public. It is profoundly ironic that it has done this and now blames us for its illegal and otherwise questionable actions.

The parking shortage at the Noordhoek Farm village was not created by NEAG. NEAG did not force the trustees to build residences on areas ideally suited to parking. We have had several complaints from residents in these houses about noise and other impositions, highlighting that a residential component is not suited to this area and was built solely to maximise profit. The shortage of parking at the farm village exists primarily because parking is not a profit generating endeavour and instead reduces the rentable and retail area, diminishing profit potential. That a functioning organic garden was bulldozed to make a car park seems to have been forgotten. It was not a wasteland but only became one after the organic garden was forced to close by the trust in order that a car park could be built.

NEAG is disturbed by the falsehoods and misleading statements that have been issued by the trustees of the farm village blaming us for their misfortunes when in reality it is the trustees who only have themselves to blame and who should be held responsible by the tenants of the farm village. It is egregious of Wiley to blame NEAG and further indicates disrespect of our constructive role in this development.

We and other community organisations have been involved in this development for almost 20 years. It is only because of our collective institutional memory and determination that we have managed to halt the invasion of public open space by the construction of a parking area amongst other challenges associated with this development. It is only through public pressure that the area around which the court case revolved is not a petrol station, as it was mooted to be. We forced this to become public open space many years ago and we cannot forget this fact.

The high court ruling is so decisively in our favour that the trustees were refused leave to appeal. When petitioning for leave to appeal it was instructive to learn from the trustees that they did not deem it necessary to get permission for this car park, further underscoring their guilt. We on the other hand won every single aspect of the case and full costs were awarded. We are tired of being blamed for the wrongdoing of the trust and the slanderous and misleading manner in which they have attempted to turn public opinion against us simply shows further disrespect to the legal system that underpins our constitutional freedoms.

We reiterate that we are available to work with the tenants of the farm village, as we have stated in the past. However we are not prepared to sit around a table and be told how things are going to be done as has historically occurred. It is clear that the trustees of the farm village simply did not understand that NO means NO, and consequently forced us to go to court and to win our case. We are prepared to negotiate from this position and are not prepared to compromise our important legal victory.

This victory, while it may have temporary impacts on tenants at the farm village, sends a clear message to developers, not only in Noordhoek and the surrounding area, but nationally: That there are limits in law and that when these limits are crossed, civil society is prepared to pursue their options in not only preserving open space, but equally our environment and our constitutional rights. This victory is not just about a principle, as has been claimed. It is about the correct interpretation of the law and from stopping powerful commercial interests from usurping our collective heritage.

We thank the community for their strong support over this time and will continue to work for a co-operative and collective vision for a better neighbourhood, improved social integration and for protection of our environment from egregious and self serving interpretations of the law by powerful, profit oriented interests.

This court case has provided important legal clarity on several aspects relating to property developments and the built environment. We are grateful for this and the independence of our judiciary that allowed this situation to be correctly resolved.

Furthermore we shall take the strongest possible exception to any further suggestions seeking to pin blame on us for the parking problems at the Noordhoek Farm Village. We wish to make it clear that we shall protect our good name from slanderous and defamatory claims from those who continue to attempt to blame us for their illegal actions.

End of statement.

Issued on and behalf of the Noordhoek Environmental Action Group, NEAG.

For further information please contact.

Kathi Sales – phone 021 789 1244 email kathi@risingtide.co.za
Glenn Ashton – phone 021 789 1751 email ekogaia@iafrica.com

End of release.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has refused the Old Cape Village Trust’s application for leave to appeal the earlier judgement handed down in February 2008 by Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis which required the immediate demolition of a tarred and stone kerbed public parking area for 51 cars and the plastered brick columns of a signpost in the Noordhoek Farm Village and to return Erf 453 Chapman’s Peak to its original condition which was an overgrown vacant field. NEAG through its attorney has insisted upon immediate fulfillment of the terms of the court order.

In response to the latest rejection of its application for leave to appeal the trustees of the Old Cape Village Trust have undertaken to adhere to the ruling of the court as soon as practically possible starting with the closure of the disputed parking area on Fri 11 July at 15h00. Demolition of the signage columns will commence, weather permitting, on Monday 14th July and of the parking area as soon as a demolition plan has been finalized and a contractor appointed. Unfortunately the court’s decision leaves the Old Cape Village Trust with no alternative but to give notice of termination of lease to the Noordhoek Nursery, Noordhoek Carwash and to NEAG itself which manages the Noordhoek waste recycling depot on the disputed site.

NEAG had objected to the formal parking area established on Erf 453 which is owned by the Trust, forms part of the Noordhoek Farm Village and is zoned as open space. The Trust had argued that the entire Village is private property zoned as Special Area and that nothing precluded it from creating a public parking area on Erf 453 which is designated as open space.

According to Jeremy Wiley, a trustee of the Old Cape Village Trust, all attempts to resolve of the dispute which started in late 2006 in a sensible and practical way have been rejected by NEAG. The fact that the Noordhoek Farm Village has become an increasingly popular destination for local residents and visitors and obviously requires additional parking to avoid dangerous and reckless parking along Noordhoek Main Road and Village Lane has been ignored by NEAG. Most residents of Noordhoek believe NEAG’s behavior has been an illogical, costly and wasteful exercise that benefits neither the environment and certainly not the general public.

“The Old Cape Village Trust deeply regrets the inconvenience to Noordhoek residents , visitors, its tenants and staff that the demolition of the parking area and signage columns will cause. The fact that neither Judge Davis nor the Supreme Court of Appeal deemed it prudent for the matter to initially be dealt with through the normal land usage channels of the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government or to accepted oral evidence suggests that rulings made on the basis of legal technicalities can ignore the best interests of the public on the ground”.

“ How the destruction of a well designed and constructed public parking area and its replacement with an overgrown field on private land in an area that clearly needs more public parking will assist the natural environment defies logic. NEAG has demonstrated once again total disregard for the wellbeing 21 local enterprises, employing collectively over 150 local people, and the many hundreds of Noordhoek residents who view Noordhoek Farm Village as their sole source of economic livelihood as well as local social and recreational venue.”
ENDS

Enquiries: Jeremy Wiley, Old Cape Village Trust
Tel: 021 7891317, Cell: 082 446 0126
Fax: 021 7891318

The minutes of the AGM held on 26 May 2008 at the Red Herring are available to download here.

http://www.ournoordhoek.org.za/projects/

The Noordhoek Conservancy financials are available for viewing at the Conservancy office : Red Herring Centre, Beach Road, Noordhoek.