Summerstrand residents said on Monday they were not against the concept of an international conference centre in Port Elizabeth, but did object to its being built at Pollok Beach.

They were speaking at a meeting with Coastal and Environmental Services director Ted Avis, in which he presented a breakdown of the draft scoping report.

The report is the first phase of the environmental impact assessment and gauges public opinion of the development. Coastal and Environmental Services is a private firm hired by the municipality to conduct the environmental impact assessment .

Avis said the three proposed sites, namely Kings Beach, Pollok Beach and Moreton Bay, had been chosen for their size, availability of land and marketability, among other things.

The three were then pitted against each other for suitability, and Kings Beach came out tops with an 86 % suitability rating.

Despite this, the Pollok Beach site, which had a 43% suitability rating, was "the preferred site of the metro", Avis said.

Residents at the meeting questioned why, in the face of lack of space to develop further and the availability of more suitable sites, Pollok Beach was chosen.

"What I can't understand is why all the other sites that were too small fell away, but Pollok, which is also too small, actually gets it," one resident said.

Dr Peter Swartz, of the Coastal Environmental Trust called the scoping study "flawed", as neither of the two sites were suitable.

"This is all part of the municipality's plan to fast-track this thing, and instead of waiting for other land to open up, they just went ahead".

He said the land of all three sites was also "free", as it already belonged to the municipality, thus speeding up the process.

In response, Avis said that the decision on which site was chosen ultimately lay with the provincial government; the environment department.

Avis said the Moreton Bay site was owned by the National Ports Authority, not the municipality.

Feather Market Centre director Keith Murcott said that while the Pollok site was not ideal, the ICC would mean a major injection into the city's economy.

He said he had been mandated to create a report on how much money the Feather Market Centre had contributed to the economy in the past five years, and had come up with a figure of R200-million.

He said that Nelson Mandela Bay "must move quickly", as South Africa already had three international conference venues, with East London, Bloemfontein and George also considering building such centres.

Eastern Cape Herald
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge