By Brett Horner
Objectors scrambled to lodge formal protests against the planned development of a private hospital and shopping centre in Selborne.
The proposed site of the development by Bophelo Ba Setshaba Healthcare and Netcare is Clarendon Gardens, an important recreational space in the city for years.
The 53000m² parcel of land is adjacent to Union Avenue, between Clarendon Schools for Girls and the new Road Lodge.
It will be sold by Buffalo City Municipality to the consortium for R41million, pending the outcome of objections.
Among objectors are the Clarendon schools, which have developed part of the land for their sports fields. The remaining section of Clarendon Gardens also comprises sports fields used by the public.
Owen Nel, the high school’s principal, sent parents a letter last week exhorting them to submit their own objections to the city’s planning department ahead of a deadline last Friday.
He questioned the wisdom of yet another medical facility in an area already congested with three hospitals.
“Apart from the serious curtailment of our ability to offer sport at the schools that the loss of this land would cause, the advisability of having another hospital complex with a shopping mall in the vicinity of the school is seriously questioned,” Nel wrote.
He cited traffic congestion and increased criminal activity as further reasons for the schools’ opposition, similar to points of objection raised in a residential circular.
The four-page pamphlet, distributed recently by a Selborne resident, chronicled historic attempts by the municipality to sell the property for commercial development and suggested the idea of a hospital was a move to secure a shopping centre “by stealth”.
Craig Sam, the city’s director of development planning, confirmed on Monday that BCM had received “numerous objections” to the proposed development.
He said these would have to be addressed by the developers before council considered approving the project.
“The applicant will have to undertake the necessary traffic impact assessments and environmental scoping reports as with any development of a similar size,” Sam said.
He also allayed fears that Clarendon Schools would lose the use of their sports fields: “In no way will the sale to the private hospital interfere with the rights of the schools.”
He said the other public sports fields would be relocated elsewhere.
Netcare also gave assurances that their new hospital with joint venture partners Bophelo Ba Setshaba would not affect the schools’ fields.
Dr Victor Litlhakanyane, Netcare’s director for stakeholder relations, said the initial draft had utilised Clarendon’s fields but once Netcare realised this, they resubmitted a new proposal that did not include this land.
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
