Re: Letter by Chris Willemse (Chairman
of Camps Bay Residents and Ratepayers Assoc) Atlantic Sun 29 August refers.
We, the Concerned Parents Group, are
encouraged by the continued commitment expressed by CBRRA to promote the best
interest of the community. We all agree that the land currently occupied by the
Camps Bay Bowling Club should be used in such a way as to derive maximum
benefit for the maximum number of community members.
We are therefore perplexed by Mr Willemse’s
assertion that maximum benefit will be derived from a shared arrangement in
which the school is allocated “an area” of “the current large parking lot”,
while the Bowling Club retains the rest of the facility. While we are
definitely in favour of some form of shared facility use with other interest
groups, we believe that primary schooling should constitute the main activity
on the site. Our reasons are:
1. According to spatial allocations published by the City and the
Western Cape Education Department, Camps Bay is currently over-provided for in
terms of active recreation facilities (121% and this does not take into account
access to beaches and mountains) and severely under-provided for in terms of
primary schooling facilities (31%). Even if the entire piece of land were given
over to primary schooling, there would still be a significant imbalance, with
active recreation reduced to 112% of the optimal, and primary schooling
increased to 40% . (These calculations can be viewed on the CPG’s Facebook
page.)
2. The Prep and Primary Schools in Camps Bay which, though split across
two campuses for historical reasons, together constitute the community’s
primary schooling facility, run a two-stream system, with two classes per grade
for grades R to 7. As evidenced by a significant number of our community’s
children being turned away in the past five years, a shift to a three-stream
system is well overdue. This implies a 50% growth in pupil numbers and “an
area” of the parking lot will be hopelessly inadequate to accommodate this
growth. The current Prep School campus does not have any sporting facilities at
all; it has minimal play facilities (not a blade of grass); and it has a tiny
hall, which can barely accommodate the current numbers.
3. The Bowling Club, by contrast, is hopelessly underutilizing the
land. According to their AGM report for 2012, they were not able to fill two
teams (four players per team) to compete in the league, and had to borrow
members from the Gardens Club. Meanwhile, the Glen Country Club one kilometer
away is concerned about the future of its Bowls section, according to a letter
from its president. (See CPG’s Facebook page for both documents.) Clearly, the
community’s need for education facilities far outstrips its need for bowling
facilities.
4. The Prep and Primary Schools have a strong community spirit. They
already share their facilities with a large number of other interest groups in
the community, for judo, spanish dancing, prayer groups and youth groups, to
name a few. So the host of community-oriented activities which currently use
the bowling club’s hall would probably continue to do so - with the exception
of any requiring a liquor license. The rest of the clubhouse would be renovated
to suit the school’s needs, and the two bowling greens, currently restricted to
single-use due to their fragile nature, would become mixed-use sporting
facilities which the school would share with the community. A model for this is
the Symmonds Field, which is leased and tended by the Primary School, but used
at least as much by the rest of the community.
The fact is that, while the land can be
used to great benefit by a number of interest groups alongside the school,
co-habitation with the CBBC is both unnecessary and impossible. It is
unnecessary because no one is being denied access to bowling facilities. It is
impossible because the premises cannot accommodate the needs of both school and
club simultaneously.
Mr Willemse also made reference to 2014 as
a date for the expansion of the Prep School. It is important that the community
is aware that 2014 is no longer a possibility. The parents in the community,
especially those who have not yet secured a place for their children, hope
fervently that the rest of the community will support us in making expansion a
reality for 2015. Until then, our children will continue to suffer the
consequences of spatial allocations that currently do not derive maximum
benefit for the community.
Fiona Hart
Deputy chairperson, Concerned Parents
Group
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