Welcome to the October 2015 issue of the Blackheath City Improvement District Newsletter

Last month The Blackheath City Improvement District (BCID) hosted their Annual General Meeting where the Directors gave feedback to the Blackheath Industrial Community regarding the financial position of the company, local development, local operations, safety and the daily running of the Blackheath City Improvement District.

Property owners who attended this meeting also approved an extension of the Blackheath CID term for a further five years from 2016 until 2021 and then went on to approve the proposed Motivation Report, 5 Year Implementation Plan and the associated 5-year budget.

24 Local Property owners who are also current members of the company attended and a Proxy was received from 18 other member property owners who were unable to attend. Apologies were received from two property owners who were diverted on their way to the meeting. There are currently 97 property owners who are signed up members of the Blackheath City Improvement District NPC.

The proposed plans and budgets were supported unanimously, whilst it was reported that the associated additional levy will remain way below the industry standard, being around 10% of the annual Property Rates amount, whilst the Industry Standard is around 15% of Property Rates.

All the related documentation that was presented at the Annual General Meeting is available to view or download from the Blackheath City Improvement District website.

It was reported that the rates base in the last decade in the Blackheath Industrial area had risen by around 750% since 2005 from a Rates base of around R182M in 2005 to the current valuation base of around R1.350B in 2015.

The Blackheath Industrial area remains a major growth point in the City of Cape Town and continues to attract investors and business from across the globe. We are proud of our achievements to date and are happy to celebrate our tenth year in operation in Blackheath as a business driven initiative funded by the property owners in the Blackheath Industrial geographical area.

Bush Clearing

In November 2015 the BCID cleansing team will focus more on the removal of alien vegetation and less on cleansing initiatives. We will still have a litter picking team working their way through the area on a daily basis, but will be focusing our efforts and the majority of the staff will be involved in the removal of the alien vegetation.

Safety along Wimbledon Road is a big concern as criminals lurk in the bushes along the road and target pedestrians on their way too and from their places of work. The Provincial Government has been notoriously bad at maintain this Provincial Road Reserve and we have taken ownership of this clearing initiative over the last ten years in order to ensure the safety of foot traffic along this route.

The safety of our workforce is of paramount importance to their productivity and social welfare.

Fibre Optic Solutions and general Telkom issues.

We have experienced several Telkom line failures in the Blackheath Area over the last few weeks and months. Repeated incidents of cable theft and cable damage have been reported in various locations and especially in Anfield Road.

In many cases, cables are just damaged or severed and not stolen. This has led to speculation about whether this is about cable theft or rather more about malicious damage to infrastructure. The BCID has partnered with Telkom’s Special Investigations Unit in our quest to secure the infrastructure in Blackheath and ensure that business has the essential uninterrupted telephone services they require.

Telkom have dispatched their armed response services to patrol the local area over nights and weekends and this service will strengthen our own 24 hour armed patrols that are supplied by ST3 Security and will hopefully assist in bringing those responsible to book.

These constant interruptions in service have urged the local businesses to shop for alternatives to the Telkom copper based telephony and ADSL supply. Fibre optics and satellite options are seemingly the alternatives. Fibre being the most reliable with guaranteed very high internet speeds at ever more affordable rates.

Dark Fibre Africa are in the process of rolling out fibre infrastructure through the Blackheath area. This infrastructure currently runs from the Stellenbosch Arterial Road, turns right at the four way stop at Allens Meshco and runs along Wimbledon Road, then hangs a left along School Road to Range Road where it branches of toward Buttskop Road. Buttskop Road is also being added to the network this week and Heath Circle is currently being serviced.

This infrastructure is available to any Internet Service Provider (ISP). We believe that the more ISP’s that are available to business and are operating in Blackheath, the more competitive the fibre rates will be as competition between suppliers will be of benefit to the pricing structures in the market.

The BCID Management team will continue to investigate options and suppliers and create an awareness of the local area with the ISP’s so as to assist local business in entering the 21st century and benefiting from telephony and high speed internet solutions that are reliable and support business applications.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS:

SING FOR AFRICA Happy Valley Grade "R" School

Our Future Artists! Pupils at Sing for Africa creating art with recycled materials.

The children were taught how to wash hands by the Department of Health. Saving Water Makes Cents!!!

Sing for Africa Woman's Camp 2015
These woman were taught how to make Christmas trimmings.

These Books were donated by Brendan van der Merwe to the Library at the Grade R School.

Click here: Sing for Africa Facebook Page

Click Here to visit the Blackheath City Improvement District Website: