Council moots policy to regulate secured car parks

Source: Sunday News

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is mooting a policy aimed at regulating secured parking areas in the city after investigations revealed that those running them were deviating from their original use and operating illegal businesses.

The proposed policy will see those doing other businesses at the car parks having their leases terminated if they defy orders to stop doing business other than car parking. A secured car park area is a designated area where cars and other vehicles can be parked for a fee for a specified temporary period of time which is usually overnight. Bulawayo has a number of facilities especially in the high density suburbs zoned for secured parking which are leased to private individuals.

However, an investigation by the local authority recently revealed that over the years, there had been an escalation of illegal activities within the city's leased secured parking areas, chief among them being gas retailing, tombstone curving and selling, grinding mills, brick moulding, carpentry, construction of residential dwellings, rearing of chickens pick-ups and drop-off points for rural area travellers to name a few.

"Secured car parks popularly known as overnight car parks were mainly established in the early 1990s in response to the demand for secure parking for vehicles mostly within the high density residential areas. The rise in car break-ins and theft in residential areas saw the residents applying to the local authority seeking land for the establishments of overnight secured car parks.

"The advent of secured car parks has helped communities in curbing crime within high density residential areas within the city.

This was meant to mitigate the problems encountered which included draining of fuel from cars at night, stealing of car batteries, removal of spares and stealing of cars. Due to these crimes the cars of residents were not safe hence the need to have secured car parking areas," reads a council report.

The local authority revealed that, at present, there are 135 secured car park sites that were being leased, with the individuals being given three-year renewable leases, which were essentially place holders whose leases were to be terminated once the land is needed for the primary land use.

"In the past decade the lessees of secured car parks started the operation of a number of illegal activities and these include some obtrusive uses. This prompted the Town Planning Department to engage in a survey to check the extent of these operations. The existing uses that were not permitted include tyre mending, brick moulding, barber shops, retailing of groceries and liquid petroleum gas to mention a few. Some of the illegal uses thereon are not compatible with the use of car parks as they not only pose a health hazard but also a fire risk especially in the uncontrolled trade of LP gas," reads the report.

In a bid to unravel the illegality in the 87 car parks that the local authority visited out of the known 135 car parks, it was discovered that 12 were not operational, 75 were found with illegal uses ranging from scrap yards, tuck shops, mechanical workshops, tyre sales, gas and exhaust fittings.