Thornhill Estate February 2018 | Page 13

MODDERFONTEIN LIFE Development update D evelopment in Modderfontein continues to progress and there is talk of more to come. There are changes happening all the time and it is easy to feel like they are just going to happen without any consideration or input from the people living in the area. With this in mind a committee has been set up to try and keep up to speed with the development plans and where possible give input into the process. The committee was initiated by residents from Thornhill and is a joint effort made up of Thornhill and Lakeside residents. The Modderfontein Community Working Group (MCWG) hopes to be a voice for the community and will engage with the developers to get answers and give input. There have been some initial meetings to set up the committee and we have also met with various parties involved in the development. The committee met with Nevada (the developers of the shopping centre) and items of discussion included: • Robots or traffic circles? I am sure you have heard that we will have various sets of traffic lights installed along Johan- nesburg road. We believe that this will slow down traffic flow along the road, increase noise and air pollution, and cause congestion for us as we enter and leave the Village as we wait for the lights to change at the intersection outside the Village. There are plans to have slipways to try speed up traffic flow but we think that traffic will still be slowed down. The committee have spoken to the developers (Nevada) and Jo- hannesburg Roads Agency and both of them are in favour of traffic lights. We are looking at how we can put in an objection to the traffic lights and are reviewing our options in this regard. We will keep you informed as we progress. • Security. The committee met with Nevada to understand their plans for security and how we might link up the security efforts of the two estates and the shopping centre. It is early days and this will be an ongoing dis- cussion. The developers plan to have a number plate recognition system as part of their security. This will be able to pick up false plates or stolen cars before they enter the shopping parking and have security deal with it. Our own security committee have been looking at systems like this as an option for the Village and we will investigate how we might be able to work together. Continued....