Here is an update on the matter of street lights in Kommetjie, which has been getting much community attention lately.
Thank you to all the people who came to the meeting on 30th October, and others who voted on-line on street groups, or made comments on FaceBook. These results were shared with the CoCT lighting department.
Thank you also for all who supported the KRRA’s letters and communications with the powers that be, and who wrote letters to the City Lighting Department, Alderman Felicity Purchase and our Councillor Simon Liell-Cock, to ask that our voices and option are taken into account, before changes like this are forced onto us.
The plea has been heard, and the City has conceded that we should be allowed to vote and give our opinions. Cllr Simon Liell-Cock will be sending out a survey in the near future asking if we want lights in Kommetjie or not.
Below, Patrick Dowling, Chairman of the KRRA highlights a few facts about lights in an ecologically sensitive area such as Kommetjie, to assist the residents to make an informed decision. While in some cases, street lights bring elements of security, in others they don't necessarily increase road safety, and we may not have given it a lot of thought, but there are a myriad reasons why street lights are not a good idea in some urban areas.
“Generally speaking, based on surveys, current conversations, historical understanding and with reference to our KRRA constitution (see extract below), I can say with some confidence that lights are not seen as very desirable or as a priority.
Before any plan to light up Wireless road is approved and implemented I would like to make the following points in argument against such a project:
A 2019 Guardian article citing scientific research says: “Light pollution is a significant but overlooked driver of the rapid decline of insect populations, according to the most comprehensive review of the scientific evidence to date. Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects’ lives, the researchers said, from luring moths to their deaths around bulbs, to spotlighting insect prey for rats and toads, to obscuring the mating signals of fireflies. “We strongly believe artificial light at night – in combination with habitat loss, chemical pollution, invasive species, and climate change – is driving insect declines,” the scientists concluded after assessing more than 150 studies. “We posit here that artificial light at night is another important – but often overlooked – bringer of the insect apocalypse.”
As we know insects are an important part of the food chain and essential for nutrient recycling and pollination. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/22/light-pollution-insect-apocalypse
Further to the point about light pollution, globally biodiversity, which we ultimately depend on for existence, is under huge threat from un-thought through developments. Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “Ecologists estimate that the present-day extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times the background extinction rate (between one and five species per year) because of deforestation, habitat loss, overhunting, pollution, climate change, and other human activities.” Cape Town makes much of its rich biodiversity status
It is worth noting that Cape Town, as a member of the C40 group of Cities, flags the importance of “Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods” and “supports cities in creating lively public spaces and prioritizing nature and people over cars.”
The KRRA has absorbed the functions of the Kommetjie Heritage Society registered with SARA. As such we are developing a proposed overlay zone that focuses on village character. An avenue of street lights down a view corridor is not compatible with this vision.
We are conscious both of a somewhat fragile national / regional electricity grid and the need to conserve energy while limiting carbon emissions. Though aware that new lights would be efficient we point out that they would still be grid connected and therefore be a liability paid for by the rate base.
The ecological corridor linking the northern and southern parts of the Table Mountain National Park has now, after lengthy negotiations involving land owners, SANParks and City planners, been consolidated into the park which is also a World Heritage Site (WHS). Approved housing and other developments abutting the corridor fall into the buffer zone of this WHS. Buffer zones are intended to be sympathetic, not in stark contrast to the character of the WHS they are close to. Overly tall and conspicuous streetlights do not show the kind of sensitivity and nature consciousness required in this context. I remember seeing reference to lights in one of the EIA specialist documents related to a development off Wireless road with the recommendation that they not be installed.
We are informed that the community did have an opportunity to comment on lights which formed part of the conditions of approval of the Riverside extension development, apparently, but we do not recall that this was given the sort of public participation which would have been appropriate for such a significant infrastructure addition.
Extract from the KRRA constitution:
Kommetjie and its immediate surroundings make up an area rich in natural assets which typify the best aspects of the Western Cape’s Natural Environment. These natural assets include flora and fauna, streams, rocky and sandy shores, wetlands and wild and marine life. They represent an invaluable ecological and recreational resource for the inhabitants of Greater Cape Town, for visitors to the city and for Kommetjie residents. Their interests and those of future generations dictate that this resource be managed and protected.
The KRRA urgently appeals to City planners, traffic officials and councillors not to make a decision simply based on administrative procedure and upgrade scheduling.
We thank them for engaging with residents to discuss the best options for making Kommetjie and its environs greener, safer, slower and more accommodating of human and other life form users.”
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