Geocentric Launches New App

“As Geocentric we are very proud to launch our new mobile phone reporting application,” said Gene Lohrentz of the urban management company recently. “This is another way in which we are enabling our CID business and property owners to interact with their City Improvement District Management.

“We want our CID contributors to become part of our family by interacting with us about issues they might encounter.  The mobile application makes that possible on the devices most people have with them every day.”

The Geocentric app allows users to easily report issues in the City Improvement Districts managed by Geocentric Urban Management based in South Africa.  Currently the areas covered by this Application include Beaconvale Industrial Area, Elsies River Industrial, Glosderry, Maitland, Salt River, Somerset West CBD, Stikland Industrial, Strand CBD and the Tygervalley CBD. 

With this application users can report urban defects, crime incidents, public safety issues and general comments.  “We will acknowledge your report and provide you with feedback throughout the process.  We will also send you ‘Alerts’ of problems in your CID area, such as water leaks or power outages and we can even send crime alerts and safety tips to your mobile phone.

The Geocentric Reporting Application is Free of Charge

Simply install it and register as a user when using it for the first time.  If you need any help, please contact support@geocentric.co.za

Let’s get started!

Simply download and install the App from the Google Play or Apple App Store
Register as a user, using the app when you open it for the first time

We will send you a confirmation email and you will have to activate your app by clicking on the activation link in the email – this is to ensure we are dealing with people and not spammers.
Go to your email and verify your email address
Log in and you are ready to go!

Urban Management Trolley Introduced

The Geocentric Urban Management Trolley Project was initiated in 2017.

The aim of the project is to provide urban cleaning and maintenance teams with a platform to improve their daily tasks, assist with moving of equipment and tools and enable recycling while performing their tasks.

A few design considerations were introduced into the design of the trolley including

The ability to move heavy loads of litter or recycling from one point to another without effort or potential injury

Create high visibility for the cleaning and maintenance teams
Have quick and easy access to tools and equipment
The ability, even when fully loaded, to easy ascend and descend kerbs and sidewalks
Be able to separate waste as they work to support the recycling initiative

To achieve some of these design principles, Geocentric looked at simple solutions from other designs, for example, the stair-climbing suitcases used by so many travellers. By scaling up the design for the urban management trolleys, we could produce a sidewalk and pavement climbing trolley where the urban management worker needs minimum effort to get onto and off pavements to perform their duties.

(See photos of step 1, 2 and 3 illustrating this concept.)

The trolleys were also designed to be pushed from any side with key tools located in the middle so that it is in fact easy to use it for a two-man team operation. On each side of the trolley a plastic tool box allows storage for small tools.

Recyclables like tin cans, glass and plastic bottles are collected by the urban management workers throughout the day as they clean the streets and public spaces and at the end of each day they separate the items into baskets whereafter Geocentric recycles the items.

This is another way in which we make CID operations more sustainable and environmentally friendly as we prevent a vast amount of waste from simply going to landfills.

Geocentric have rolled out these trollies in the Elsies River and Beaconvale City Improvement Districts and plan to roll them out to all the other CIDs under Geocentric management through the course of 2018.

Stikland Industrial CID turns perceptions around

It is hard to imagine that where 92 percent of respondents to a recent survey of the Stikland Industrial City Improvement District survey indicated that they feel safe in the area, only five years ago the picture looked vastly different. Then 37 percent of respondents said they felt unsafe.

The same percentage had a very positive perception on the cleanliness of the area, while the rest said it was fairly clean. The positive ratings differed between good (37 per cent), very good (33 per cent) and excellent (22 percent). Five years ago, 81 percent of respondents complained about litter in Stikland Industria, and also expressed concern about illegal posters and graffiti.

The general rating of public areas is now 81 percent positive against 30 percent five years ago. Satisfaction with street lighting as well as street signage and markings stands now at 82 percent against 32 percent five years ago.

Fewer respondents indicated that they have problems with vagrancy and vendors – 68 per cent in 2012 versus 14 percent now.

This amazing turnaround can be attributed to the city improvement district that was established for the Stikland Industrial Area in September 2013. As part of the process a perception study had to be done and this was repeated for the second generation business plan for the period 2018 to 2022.

In 2012 a group of concerned Stikland property and business owners decided to do something about the neglect and disrepair of public and municipal infrastructure in this once well established Industrial area, where the main focus is on the manufacturing and sales of vehicles and parts, as well as the food and beverages industry.

The Special Ratings Area model was chosen to counter urban decay and rising levels of crime.

With the vision to promote and maintain a safe, clean and well managed industrial area that will attract and retain industrial and retail business operators, the following goals amongst others were set for the CID:

the improvement of public safety by means of visible patrolling and co-operation with the South African Police Service, the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement agencies and security service providers,
the cleaning of streets, pavements and public areas,
the protection of public and municipal infrastructure; and
To promote in this process also greening, energy efficiency, recycling and risk and disaster management.

Statistics show that during the past five years more than 2000 persons were approached in public areas in assistance to SAPS and other law enforcement agencies, almost 1500 members of the public were assisted in some or other way, 29 fires, accidents and medical emergencies were attended to and 32 arrests were executed.

The number of warnings issues were 382 for bin scratching, 152 for drinking in public and 204 for shopping trolleys and wheelie bins abandoned.

With regard to urban cleaning and disrepair, more than 30 000 bags of litter was collected, 102 illegal dumping sites cleared and 175 strings and cable ties removed. Hundreds of urban defects and service requests were logged, including the removal of dead trees and shrubs and dead animals, and many illegal posters were removed

The plan for 2018 – 2022: More of the same

The new business plan for the Stikland Industrial CID will be based on the experience of the past five years, the latest perception study and the service delivery standards laid down by the City of Cape Town.

Six focus areas have been determined:

Continued management of SI CID operations;
Provision of extensive public safety measures;
Cleaning, greening and maintenance of public spaces;
Addressing and monitoring urban management issues relating to public infrastructure;
Developing constructive partnerships with all role-players to improve the sustainability of the industries and potentially create employment opportunities and social upliftment in the area; and
Marketing the SICID as a well-managed and functioning industrial node of Cape Town.

Management will be done by a board of directors, elected at an annual general meeting, with a political representative of the City Council as an observer. This board takes care of a non-profit company that is managing the Stikland Industrial special ratings area within the framework of an approved business plan and a budget of R3,75 million.

Service providers and staff can be appointed to manage the day to day operations of the CID and in this case Geocentric will continue with this task as it has capably been doing during the first five years.

Safety and security will be ensured with the cooperation of the South African Police Service, local community forums, security firms active in the area, the City of Cape Town’s Safety and Security Directorate, community organisations and other stakeholders. The area is divided into two security zones and will be patrolled 7 days a week, 24 hours per day. Two highly visible patrol vehicles and officers on foot will be deployed, supported by a 14 camera CCTV network, a comprehensive radio communication system and a manned control room.

For area cleaning and urban management a multi-skilled and well equipped team, consisting of five members, will be deployed in specific areas in co-operation and co-ordination with the City of Cape Town’s resources and programmes. This will include additional street sweeping, waste picking and refuse collection. Public infrastructure such as roads, pavements, street lights, road signage and markings will be monitored on a continuous basis.

The team is responsible for the removal of graffiti and illegal posters removal and also takes care of painting road markings, kerbing and the cleaning of storm water systems

Greening, pruning of trees and landscaping form part of its environmental upgrading programme and it will also promote recycling initiatives

SICID’s social work programme and job creation initiatives will continue. Such initiatives will be rolled out in conjunction with the City of Cape Town and with local industries and businesses skills development opportunities and job creation will be on the agenda.

An information and communication strategy will be used to keep businesses and property owners informed and to promote civic pride. A website, social media, flyers and newsletters and the local media will be used.

Cape Town Mayor outlines status quo of water crisis

During a recent speech delivered at the Atlantis Aquifer, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille thanked Capetonians who had been making efforts to cut their water usage, saying that about half of water users had restricted their daily usage to 87 litres per day.

But added that this was not enough. “We need each and every Capetonian and business on board as a partner on this journey,” she said.

“We are in an unprecedented drought crisis and this phase is critical because if the City and residents don’t do enough together and simultaneously, we will run out of water.”

She said the City was doing everything in its power to ensure additional supply, including finding and hiring the country’s best team of experts who were working 80-hour weeks with the metro to ensure that additional water could be brought ‘online’.

The Atlantis plant was one of several sites for alternative water sources which form part of the ‘Water Resilience Plan’.

The City of Cape Town had recently refurbished many of the boreholes around this West Coast area to increase the production of this plant. She pointed out that these boreholes formed a part of the City’s unique Artificially Recharged Aquifer System and said a lot of work had gone into ensuring an increase in the volume of water from this aquifer system.

Prior this work, the system had been producing around four million litres of water per day. “We have now increased the yield from this aquifer by an additional five million litres per day.”

The water is serving homes and industrial businesses in Atlantis, Mamre and Pella on the outskirts of the West Coast, which is quite a vast area. “So the additional capacity will be welcomed,” the Mayor said.

“This work demonstrates our commitment to addressing this current drought crisis. I repeat my commitment that I will not allow a well-run city to run out of water.”

She added that she had made it clear when the site of a new desalination plant with the V&A Waterfront had been announced: “we have a plan and we will supply water, but we need Team Cape Town to assist us”.

In the meantime, the City of Cape Town announced that Level 6 water restrictions will be implemented from 1 January 2018, which means that households using more than 10,500 litres per month could face fines and penalties. A proposal for a drought charge of between R45 and R2 800, depending on the value of the property, has also been tabled.

Take a look at these shocking images of the Theewaterskloof Dam looking more like a desert than a body of water:

Stikland CID AGM 2017

All members of the Stikland Industrial City Improvement District NPC and all property owners of property situated inside theStikland Industrial City Improvement District SRA are invited to attend the Annual General Meetings to be held on 26 October 2017 at 16:00 at Andrag Conference Centre, Andrag-Agrico Offices, Cnr La Belle Road & Old Paarl Road, Stikland, Bellville

Please confirm your attendance / non-attendance by email to info@stikland.co.za.

Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Stikland Industrial City Improvement District NPC. This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial and industrial property within the Stikland Industrial City Improvement District SRA, but they must be registered before 12 October 2017.

If you are not the registered owner of this property, kindly forward this notice to the registered owner immediately.

THE AGM DOCUMENTS ALONG WITH OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE ACCESSED BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO OUR AGM PAGE

Click here to go to the AGM 2017 page

For further information, AGM documentation and how to register go to www.stiklandcid.co.za or e-mail info@stiklandcid.co.za or call 083 255 7657

Become a member of the Stikland CID NPC

Membership of the SRA, which is a non-profit company registered under the Companies Act, is open to all the registered property owners who are encouraged to apply for membership so that they may exercise their rights to influence the business of the SRA. Membership cannot be denied to a registered property owner and as a member the property owner is entitled to attend, participate and vote at members meetings of the Company held under the auspices of the Companies Act.

Should a member be unable to attend they may give another individual their proxy to attend and vote on their behalf. Non-members may attend and participate at members’ meetings but cannot vote and as such may thus have limited influence on the SRA’s activities.

Membership application forms can be downloaded from the link below – once complete please send the form back to info@stiklandcid.co.za

Click below to download the Membership Application Form

OUTAGE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN.

As per the Notice from the City of Cape Town there will be power outages in some areas around Stikland.

The electricity supplied to: Kaymore area Bellville and Danie Uys Street

Will be interruption on: 30 April 2017

From: 07H00

To: 12H00

Interruption is required for: 5 Yearly maintenance at Dan Uys Substation

For more details click here for actual details.

Welcome Rains also bring some challenges!!!

The rains during the early hours of this morning was certainly welcomed and much needed in our very dry Cape Town and Western Cape. We unfortunately also suffered some flood damage due to the downpour and our Stikland CID Patrol vehicles and Control Room immediately reported this to the City of Cape Town Call Centre as it was happening. We will deploy our Geocentric Cleaning and Maintenance Team to assist and clean up as far as possible.

Overall city water use still exceeding restriction target

The City of Cape Town is calling on residents to intensify their efforts to save water. Overall usage of drinking water is currently approximately 10% higher than the required savings target to prevent drawing dams down to dangerous levels by the end of summer.

The City of Cape Town advises residents that overall water consumption since the imposition of Level 3 restrictions is still 10% above the savings target of 800 million litres per day. In order to protect our water resources, residents have been asked to keep their water consumption over the coming summer months in line with their consumption over winter.

“The start of the hot summer months generally carries with it a spike in water use as residents fill up their pools and use more water in their gardens. If we are to meet our targets, residents will need to cut these activities back to winter levels, or intensify their efforts to save in other areas to keep their consumption in line with how much they used during winter. Approximately 70% of water in Cape Town is used by residential customers, and as such these consumers will have the biggest influence on how secure our future water supplies are”Alderman Ernest SonnenbergCity Mayoral Committee Member: Utility Services

Residents who would like to save water could consider harvesting rainwater or installing a borehole or water-well provided they register these with the City. This investment will also result in savings for residents in the long-run.

In addition to adhering to restrictions, residents can also employ the following tips in their homes:

Ensure that washing machines or dishwashers have a full load before running them
Rinse dishes and vegetables in a basin of water rather than under a running tap, and reuse the water for pot plants or in the garden
Reuse rinse water for the next cycle of washing up
Thaw frozen foods in the fridge, at room temperature, in a basin of water, or in a microwave rather than placing them under running water
When using taps, don’t let the water run down the drain while waiting for the hot water or for the water to cool. Rather collect the water in a bottle
Close the tap when brushing your teeth
Plug the sink when shaving rather than rinsing your razor under running water
Shower rather than taking a bath – a half-filled bath uses 113 litres of water, while a five-minute shower uses about 56 litres
Install a water-saving showerhead, take shorter showers, don’t run the water at full force, and turn off the shower when soaping
Reuse bath water in your garden
Install a new water-saving toilet
Check if your toilet is leaking. Furthermore, residents can place a 2-litre bottle filled with sand into their cistern to reduce the amount of water used with each flush
Ensure that gardens do not require large amounts of water to maintain

For more information on water restrictions as well as a more exhaustive list of water savings suggestions, residents can visitwww.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater. The City will also be advising consumers of restrictions in an insert in their next municipal invoices. We encourage residents to familiarise themselves with these restrictions and display them prominently in their homes.

If residents would like to get clarity on any of the restrictions, they can also view the FAQ document at the link above. If this does not provide an explanation they need they can send an enquiry to water.restrictions@capetown.gov.za. Residents who would like to report contraventions by members of the public can do so by contacting the City’s call centre on 0860 103 089, sending an SMS to 31373, or sending an e-mail to contact.us@capetown.gov.za.

Click here to read and download the formal water restriction notice from the City of Cape Town

THE AGM DOCUMENTS ALONG WITH OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE ACCESSED BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO OUR AGM PAGE

Important Links