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"RAT EXTERMINATOR" from Somerset West, writes: It was with some alarm that I read the article (DistrictMail, December 20, 2007), where Dave Venter (DA Councillor) contended that only (three) objections had been received against the development of the 10 Hectare site.

Both my children who own some property near the above area, (now planned as a low cost housing development smack bang in the middle of medium income housing and important commercial development area) had submitted objections.

It is very hard to believe that only one other objection had been received!

Either Mr Venter is lying, or he has been greatly mislead on this issue, or he is trying to mislead the public.

Having met Mr Venter personally, I believe that he must either have been quoted incorrectly by the paper, or he has been mislead by his own officials.

The day following the closure date for objections some months back, I personally phoned the Somerset West Municipality, who informed me that a "substantial" number of objections had been received. I believe "substantial" to be more than three. I would expect Mr Venter to publicly clarify his statement on this very important matter.

Dave Venter, Ward Councillor for Ward 83, replies:
The letter writer is quite correct. There were quite a number of objections.

On the day that I was asked to respond to the article and allegations made by Eben Arendse, I told the DistrictMail reporter that a number of objections were received.

It appears that there was a misunderstanding. He wanted to know what the objections were about, to which I replied there were too many to mention.

Upon his insisting that I be more specific, I said the objections could be categorised into three types of objections namely, 1: objections to the type of housing planned for the project; 2: objections by neighbours concerned about the effect that the project may or may not have on their own property values, and 3: objections to the impact that the project may have on the environment.

In conclusion I said that all the objections will be considered and dealt with in the normal manner.

As far as the concerns regarding the environment were concerned, an Environmental Impact Assessment is being done at present and once completed a report will obviously be considered when the final decision to rezone is made.

I trust that the above information will clear the matter up.

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