Makana Municipality has entered into discussions with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for permission to use the city's old railway station as a bus terminus.
Makana Municipality has entered into discussions with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for permission to use the city's old railway station as a bus terminus.
Plans to erect a bus terminus at the top of Bathurst Street came to a halt when a permit issued by the Provincial Heritage Resource Agency was found to be invalid. The municipality has been actively seeking a solution to Grahamstown's need for a bus terminus to serve passengers using the long-distance buses that pass through the town.
Initial plans for the terminus, which included a toilet block, were met with strong objections from Grahamstown residents, who argued that it would be an aesthetic blight on the landscape. The terminus was to have been built adjacent to two important heritage sites – the Anglo Boer War memorial statue and Commemoration Church.
The municipality is now pursuing another option, namely, the old railway station. "The representatives of Prasa are really keen," said Councillor Les Reynolds at last Monday's Social Development portfolio meeting, proposing that another meeting should be organised to finalise the matter.
Reynolds described the area at the top of Bathurst Street where buses currently stop as a "hornets' nest", congested by street kids, long lines of passengers and refuse. "That is not a good thing for Grahamstown," Reynolds said.
Social Services Director, Mandisi Planga said he'd had a short meeting with a representative of Prasa, where they had suggested a date for a more extensive meeting.
Last year, Makana Municipality applied for funding from the Department of Transport and Cacadu District Municipality to build the proposed structure at the top of Bathurst Street. Once they'd got the money, the municipality submitted an application for a building permit. At first it was declined because no heritage impact assessment had been conducted.
A second application was submitted that included the assessment and the municipality was issued with a permit valid for 12 months, giving the go-ahead to proceed with construction.
But in October 2009, just as tenders were about to be issued, the chairperson of the Eastern Cape Provincial Heritage Resources Authority, Cameron Dokoda, told them the permit was invalid. Dokoda said this was because of a procedural flaw: the second application should have been an appeal, not an application, he said.
Cacadu District Municipality consequently withdrew its co-funding. There were indications that this was because there were delays in getting the project off the ground.
