Ratepayers hail B Bay taxi rank

The start of construction work on a new taxi rank in Beacon Bay has been welcomed by the suburb’s ratepayers’ association.

Concerns over the rank were raised at Saturday’s Daily Dispatch Café Newsroom, with questioning whether BCM had consulted residents before going ahead. Others feared it would cause congestion, add to crime and see an increase in littering and loitering.

But the Beacon Bay Ratepayers’ Association confirmed it had been consulted by the metro and was in favour of the 100m-long roadworks project next to Spargs SuperSpar.

While most welcomed the project, staff at Logan Pools opposite the new rank were not happy.

Lucy Greyvenstein, Chantal Steyn and Janleigh Bezuidenhout feared for their personal safety, parking congestion, lack of access for customers, noise and litter.

However, Steyn said she had used taxis in East London and Gonubie for 11 years and felt “protected” by the drivers.

In contrast, Paul and Christine Stiffler, owners of Europa Inn B+B opposite the existing rank who have lived there for 32 years, were adamant the “festive”, bustling rank was a deterrent to burglars who preferred less public targets.

“We have not had a problem with theft,” they said. Commuters and taxi operators were generally “a happy bunch” with only the occasional “brawl”. The problem was when the rank stopped operating late at night and the toilets were used as a shebeen and shelter for homeless people and drunks.

But the Stifflers said the reaction from the Beacon Bay police was “fantastic”.

“They just ask ‘how many vans?’”

At Spargs, Ken Maree, property and marketing manager for 18 Eastern Cape businesses falling under RNE Holdings, said simply: “We’ll wait and see. Taxis park there anyway.”

Taxi driver-owner Gcinumzi Rungqa, 52 – who runs three taxis valued at more than R900000 – and his friend, taxi-owner Sipiwo Fanteso, 61, said a new, better organised, rank would help improve driver behaviour.

However, they worried that the new breed of smaller sedan taxis was adding to the congestion.

Rungqu said: “There are no jobs and they have to put food on the table. But this does not mean we drive recklessly. You must obey the laws of the road.”

BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese said the project cost “below R2-million” and did not require an environmental assessment as they were using road reserve. The work was being done by BCM’s regular contractor, Luquqambo Civils.

“Taxi associations have been consulted and have agreed to move to the space once constructed,” Matebese said.

In a letter to the affected community, municipal manager Andile Fani said the “taxi loading bay/rank” would be built by April.

Fani wrote: “The purpose is to remove taxis that are loading and blocking traffic on Bonza Bay Road to a more suitable space so as to ease traffic congestion.”

Fani attached a “Conceptual Road Upgrading” plan drawn up in June 2011 by SSI consultants in Port Elizabeth and checked and approved in July that year.

It shows two lanes peeling off Bonza Bay Road, one with 13 holding bays, the other marked for “boarding and alighting only”.

The two lanes are separated from the main road by a cement island. — mikel@dispatch.co.za