Why in Newlands?

About 500 out of 1,800 households vountarily subscribe to the Community Patrol scheme.  This raises about R150,000 each month enabling us to deploy armed officers in vehicles 24/7.  Our Community Patrollers are incredibly effective and underpin all our security projects.  Without securing sustainable  funding to maintain and expand this programme, our security will be massively compromised.  The Community Patrollers are managed by the NRA's volunteer security team.

We have a network of LPR cameras, one overlooking each of the main entry points to our suburb.  They were paid for by donations from our residents and are monitored and managed by the NRA security team.  They alert when known suspect vehicles enter our area and are linked to over 1,500 LPR cameras across Cape Town.  Every single month, this extraordinary, civilian owned and operated network assists SAPS in arresting dozens of criminals.

Using the latest AI technology, dozens of privately owned CCTV cameras have been linked together into a network enabling our Community Patrollers to track down suspicious activity at night.  The network is maintained and operated by the NRA's volunteer security team

Funded by business and managed by the NRA's volunteer security team, there is security at the  Kildare Circle throughout the night, managing suspicious activity, including trespass, by-law offences and roughsleeping encampments. The patroller can call on the NRA's armed Community Patrol if necessary.

Currently funded by a single incredibly generous resident, and managed by the NRA, there is a park warden in Paradise Park throughout the day.  The team also collects litter, contributing further to this wonderful space.  Should it be necessary, the warden can call on the NRA's armed Community Patrol.

It takes many moving parts to keep a suburb safe. Volunteers from our community represent the NRA as Members of the Community Police Forums in both Rondebosch and Claremont.  They participate in crime operations and feedback meetings weekly and monthly.  This is where valuable realtionships are built with other Neighbourhood Watches, Law Enforcement, Metro Police, Private Security companies, Table Mountain National Park, etc.

A Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) is not just an idea, it is a government accredited organisation with a mandate, patrolling responsibilities and legal obligations.  

The NRA Neighbourhood Watch is a volunteer organisation which has assumed many of the reponsibilities of the NRA's security Portfolio and is supported by some of the same volunteers. 

The most visible manifestation of the NHW for residents is the NRA Security WhatsApp group where residents can report crime and call for asssitance.  

There are more than 15 'micro' WhatsApp security groups in our part of Newlands.  They are moderated and maintained by residents of the streets they serve.  Crucially, at least one member of the NRA's volunteer security team sits on almost every group, regardless of where they live themselves, to transfer important alerts to the Community Patrollers who can attend any situation.  

The Newlands Residents Association has several 'portfolios' each headed up by a volunteer. The Security portfolio has a sub-committeee of six people, deliberately drawn from all parts of our area, so that they can represent everyone in their neighbourhood. They support the WhatsApp groups, help victims of crime, collect video footage to assist with crime investigation and even appear in court to support proscutions, if required.

Every Tuesday the Residents Association's litter picker walks to all the litter hotspots filling bags as he travels through our streets.  Newlands would look much grubbier without him.  This is just one of many things that the NRA does with your R200 annual membership subscription.  

Once again, though, things are changing and getting difficult to sustain.  Because of the ever increasing number of homeless people on the street, our litter pickers cannot leave tied-up bags for more than a few hours before they are torn open.  Once they have been searched for their meagre pickings, the rubbish is left strewn across the street and we are back to square one.  So now we have to drop digital pins at every location the litter pickers leave a bag, and pay for a  bakkie to crawl around that evening, collecting them all.   If we can't find a way to  fund these activities in a sustainable way, there will be more litter on the streets. 

There are a handful quite amazing individuals who clear litter like there is no tomorrow.  One older resident walks half of the green bins of Upper Newlands, every single day, emptying them and putting the rubbish in his own bin.  This shouldn't be necessary but the council simply don't get around to the bins as often as they need to, so they quickly overflow.  Another resident works with his gardener for a full day every week, clearing litter from Papenboom Meadow and the Liesbeek canal.  We are profoundly grateful to these and many other volunteers - each of whom is from an older generation whose sense of civic obligation may not persist into the next.  

It is not just by chance that Newlands has such a great sense of community!  The NRA's Community Portfolio exists purely to pull everyone together, and to share some of our good fortune which those with so much less.   Almost every month there is a community event:  monthly markets at Kildare Circle in the summer, Duck races for children on the canal before the winter rains dry up, Kids' Christmas market in Paradise Park, Annual Clean up, Mandela Day - and so on.   

As any visitor knows, Paradise Park can speak for itself. A beautiful space that gets better every year. This is largely because the Friends of Paradise Park is so active. It constantly encourages the City and the Councillor to invest in the park and if that doesn't work, one enterprising resident makes the play equipment himslef. If you haven't seen the Treehouse at the bottom of the park, you really should.  The park is a big peaceful place which has attracted bad elements in the past. Recently the Chair of Friends of Paradise Park personally funded a three month trial of a Park Warden to keep an eye on the park.  It has been a huge success and would be welcome in any of our open spaces.  

The NRA is very lucky to have one of the leading lights of the Treekeepers NGO in charge of the Environment portfolio.  She liaises with all of the parks groups to see how the NRA can support them, and fulfils the 'Friends' role for Papenboom Meadow. This is a large and popular open space with a permanent stream, opposite the BP on Newlands Avenue.  She was also very involved in mitigating the effects of the bark-stripping crime  wave this year, and in getting materials to whoever wanted to paint their own trees to pre-empt stripping.  Newlands is all about the outdoors and our tree filled environment.  It is critical that there is some sort of neighbourhood oversight to defend that.

 A jewel of a park in the heart of Newlands Village this is supported by City, and the Friends of Kent Road Park.  Popular with parents and childminders of small children, the community has installed decking, and wooden playground toys to suit the space.

Created to secure a piece of long abandoned land from developers and neglect, this park has been lovingly forged into something really special by a handful lof unpaid volunteers. 

Newlands is full of rivers and streams and none pops its head up so often as the Liesbeek.  Friends of the Liesbeek do great work, largely unheralded and perennially underfunded.   They need and deserve consistent supporty to keep our river the way we would all like it to be.

Newlands' parks have not always been in the great shape they are today.  Once completely neglected,  many residents will remember that even Paradise Park needed to be reclaimed from rampant undergrowth and filth.  One of the residents who led that charge has for many years also led the NRA's Green Team. He has a crew of two who work in Newlands Avenue and the 'green belt' along the M3, below the forest underpass. That area was overgrown and unsafe.  Today it has a laid path all the way from Cannon Street to past Forries, with clear sight lines and well maintained vegetation.  This retired resident manages the work himself and and pays for one of his team out of his own pocket.

Like all parks, Palmboom is managed by managed by the Dept. of Recreation but the Friends of Palmboom Park do an enormous amount for the park, including securing it at night with privately funded security staff.  

Little known but much used, this simple open space in Upper Newlands has been defended from developers by generations of homeowners.  Local families recently installed playground equipment and then got together again when it was temporarily commandeered by roughsleepers.  Doing this stuff is much harder than it once was.  It's no longer enough to just pick up empty cooldrink cans and hang a rope swing from a tree branch.  If we want to live in a safe and clean suburb, we need funding and management. 

Just another example of how local energy can make a real difference - and what is at risk if neglected.  FynbosLIFE, the City's Recreation and Parks Dept., Friends of the Liesbeek and the Newlands Residents Association have collaborated to reinstate a small exhibition garden in papenboom Meadow, celebrating the historical flora of our area.  

If you want to make the City to listen to you, the best method is to get your project or complaint considered by one of their formal structures.  The Newlands Resident's Association is not a de facto member of the Council in any way, so one of the Committee Members is asked to volunteer their services to the Ward 59 Committee.   All matters tabled at the Ward Committee are minuted and have to be attended to by the Councillor. 

The NRA, and the various parks' 'Friends' groups, also have strong links with the Department of Recreation & Parks.  They are invariably short of resources but we get far more done in our area than most of our neighbours.  We do this by taking on as much of the work as our volunteers can themselves, and only asking for help with the things that we cannot do - collection and transport of bulk cuttings, provision of mature tree saplings, etc.  The arrangement works for both parties and Rec & Parks collaborate generously and quickly. 

When a civic organisation like the Newlands Residents Association is considered to have enough support, it can be recognised as a commenting body by the City of Cape Town.  In the NRA's case that includes having an opportunity to comment on building proposals that include anything seeking permissions beyond the norm - most commonly known as Departures.  For many years, volunteer architects with homes in Newlands have scrutinised plans on behalf of the NRA, checking for breaches of the building and Heritage codes.

There are many other volunteer groups in Newlands and if you would like to get yours listed, please get in touch! info@newlandscid.org