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Royal Ascot |
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RAMPOA is responsible for the
management and maintenance of
the landscaping in the public
areas in Royal Ascot. These are
the road verges, the small
playpark areas, and the areas
around the stormwater detention
ponds. The land itself
belongs to the City, but the
approval for the development of
Royal Ascot gave RAMPOA the
responsibility of maintaining
the landscaping. |
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The total area of landscaping in
Royal Ascot is just over 55,000
square metres - that is 5.5ha.
It is large, and because it is
so stretched out, it is
difficult to manage. |
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To manage and maintain these
areas RAMPOA has appointed
landscape architects
Planning
Partners to oversee the
management and the landscape
contractor
Real Landscapes
to maintain the public areas. A
subcontractor, Cape Rain CC,
looks after the irrigation
system. |
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If precincts have any issues
regarding the landscaping they
wish to raise, please contact
our Portfolio Manager (see
Contact
details). Approaching our
contractors directly will not
help, they will only attend to
issues brought to their
attention through the correct
channels. |
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On our map, the public areas are
coloured light green. »
Click here to view map |
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Road maintenance is the
responsibility of the Council
and not of RAMPOA, but RAMPOA
interfaces with the council
where necessary to ensure that
our roads are in a good
condition. However, it must be
understood that Council has
budget and resource constraints
and we cannot always have
necessary roadworks carried out
immediately. |
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There are several stormwater
detention ponds in Royal Ascot.
Unlike the wetlands in the
Milnerton Conservation area,
these ponds are not natural and
were built to retain and filter
stormwater. The reeds and
aquatic vegetation in these
ponds remove excess nutrients
(mostly nitrogen and phosphates)
from the water, and solid wastes
and refuse washed down by the
stormwater will settle to the
bottom of
the ponds. |
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These ponds serve an important
function, the filtering activity
prevents polluted water from
entering Rietvlei and the Diep
River. Ponds like these have to
be managed and the City removes excess plant growth and
settled refuse from time to
time. |
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Even though they are pollution
traps, they do provide an
attractive and pleasant area
where people can walk or sit and
enjoy the view. |
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One of the major problems we
have right now is the state of
the two detention ponds next to
Milnerton Drive at the bottom
end of Bridle Rd. These two
artificial wetlands are designed
to retain stormwater run-off
from the southern part of Royal
Ascot. |
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Unfortunately vagrants have
chosen to make this area their
home, and has caused
considerable damage to the
irrigation system and the
vegetation in the area.
Maintaining these areas are
costing us a lot of money, and
RAMPOA has now instructed
the contractors to stop irrigating
and maintaining the area until
the Council has taken firm steps
to remove the vagrants. |
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The issue of vagrants is a
City-wide social problem which
is getting worse due to the
worsening economic situation of
the country. The City has a
department dealing with this,
but the problem is that even if
you remove the vagrants, they
just return to the area within a
few days. They are taken to
places of refuge, but they
cannot be forced to stay there. |
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Please understand that this is
City land and that the City is
responsible for keeping the
vagrants out. We hope this
problem can be resolved soon so
that we can again beautify and
maintain these two areas. |
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Finally, our security company
has no legal jurisdiction to
remove the vagrants from this
land - they can only take direct
action if one of them breaches
security in Royal Ascot, even
then they have to get the police
to arrest such a person. |
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