City plan to turn Gilray campsite into graveyard
The Klip Road Cemetery will run out of burial space in a year, according to the City, which says it is planning to use the Gilray scout campsite in Grassy Park to expand it.
It emerged at a sub-council meeting last month that the City's community services and health directorate had applied to use 5.25 hectares of the grounds for potential future cemetery use (“Concern for the future of Gilray grounds,” Southern Mail, August 30, 2023).
The municipal property between Klip Road, Victoria Road and Prince George Drive has been leased to the scouting movement since the 1950s. The lease with Western Cape Scouts expired in March last year, but the organisation has continued to lease the site on a month-to-month basis.
Mayoral committee member for community services and health Patricia van de Ross told the Southern Mail that the lease had not been renewed because the City was considering the best sustainable use of the land for the community, which might include expanding the cemetery.
Consultants had been appointed to do a feasibility study - due to be completed by June - on whether the land was suitable for a cemetery.
“The recreation and parks department is investigating the future use of the site and the expansion of the Klip Road Cemetery has been identified as an option, given the need for additional burial space,” she said.
Sub-council 18 chairperson Kevin Southgate said the facility was not being optimally used and there had been calls to review the lease agreement because the scouts had seldom run activities and had sub-let the facilities.
Gilray Road resident Margaret Hendricks said she welcomed plans to make better use of the site because it was in a poor state.
“At the moment, it poses a danger to the broader community because it is so dark at night around that area. It is run down and criminals can easily hide in the overgrown vegetation, and we as the community become their targets.”
A section of the grounds on the northern and western side of the proposed reservation area has, however, already been reserved for the future extension of the R300 freeway.
The existing Victoria Road intersection will eventually be replaced by a realigned, grade-separated Victoria Road with interchange ramps on the M5.
Jenny Martin, from Western Cape Scouts, said she was not prepared to comment until the organisation had discussed the issue with the City.
