The Kirstenhof and Environs Residents' Association has had a bumper year, says chairman Darryl Lawrence.

More than 50 people attended the civic association’s annual general meeting at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Monday November 4.

“Kera has done great things in the past, especially eco-friendly initiatives. However, this year the organisation has raised its profile and membership. A lot of this is owed to ‘fresh blood’ which have led new initiatives,” Mr Lawrence said in his chairman’s report.

The launch of the rewilding project protecting the endangered spring bulbs at Apollo Park; a new website; newsletters and increased social media presence; the Kirstenhof Wetland Walk in March, which was organised by ecologist Tim Kirsten; and the Eco Warrior project with the 1st Kirstenhof Sea Scouts were among the initiatives Mr Lawrence highlighted.

Kera’s work helped to ensure that property values in the area kept going up, he said.

“Our membership grew by about 26%, 44 new members in the last year, which we're very happy about. That’s still only about 10% of residents in Kirstenhof, but it's a positive direction for us that more people are joining.”

Residents wanting to raise issues could use Kera’s online platforms, but they should also log C3 service requests with the City because the more that were logged the more issues could be resolved, he said.

He said 1 822 C3s had been logged in Kirstenhof in the past year, and 80% of them had been related to electricity and water.

According to treasurer Barry Tranter, Kera raised R10 740 from the beginning of October last year to the end of September this year through various fund-raising activities, including quiz nights, a rock-painting workshop and raffle sales ahead of the Apollo Park Fair.

The Apollo Park Fair itself raised R32 000, but the event had been rescheduled from September to October this year so that income would only be reflected in next year’s financial report, he said.

Haylee Dugmore, who heads the communication and social media portfolio, said: “With funds available, we're looking ahead to 2025 and a couple of projects, initiatives, and plans. The goal for next year is to improve Kera’s membership to 250 people and increase visibility within our area. The idea is just to move around to the different areas to help better understand what the challenges are that residents are facing in their specific area, streets, and neighbourhood.”

Upcoming events included two wetland walks in spring and summer, a Spring in Apollo fund-raiser, and the building of more eco-benches through the Kera’s Eco Warrior project, said Ms Dugmore.

Kera’s biggest fund-raising venture for next year would be in support of its plan to publish a coffee-table book about Kirstenhof and its history, she said.

Ward councillor Carolynne Franklin noted that the Raapkraal sewage pump station had been added to the City's mayoral priority programme for pump-station infrastructure and upgrades and that the area had lost more than 20 mature, healthy trees in the past two storms.

“Between that and the impacts of the polyphagous shot-hole borer, it really is quite a challenge. We're going to lose between 50% and 60% of our trees in the next eight to ten years throughout the city. In our gardens, in our parks, in our greenbelts. So it's something that we need to be very conscious of.”

Kera, with the help of some residents, had replaced enough of the trees in Kirstenhof to compensate for the loss caused by the storm across the ward, she said

“There are some very generous residents who live adjacent to our parks where the trees have been planted. We've got mini forests now. While the City has always been happy to plant in a row, I'm not happy to plant trees in a row. We need something that is bio-diverse, that's a number of different species where you can build a little forest. We've done that in two of the parks. We're looking at rolling that out further as well.”

Over 50 people attended the civic association’s AGM at the Church of the Holy Spirit. Picture: Janice Matthews

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Bumper year for Kirstenhof civic association