What is Neels Brink saying?

08.2007

Dear Neels.

Does your statement, which is quoted in The Mercury today, mean that you have now decided to abort your plans to destroy Vetch's Beach?
Brink said three issues needed to considered in any development: the social, ecological and economic. All needed to judged equally. In the past few years, he said, unfair bias had been placed on the ecological.

In this case the score is 2 / 1 against the development going ahead :

Social - 1 against.
Ecological - 1 against.
Economic - 1 for ( according to the study, only marginally ).

brgds
Ratty



Pledge to break EIA logjam

August 08, 2007 Edition 1
Greg Ardé
Premier S'bu Ndebele has pledged to cut lengthy environmental impact assessments in KwaZulu-Natal to a maximum of three months to speed up investment in the province.
He was addressing corporate leaders at a Growth Coalition meeting in Durban yesterday.
The coalition is an informal alliance of business and political interests aimed at stimulating economic development. It is headed by Ndebele and former Mondi Paper chief, John Barton.
Ndebele said that investors could not afford to wait 18 months and longer for the government to approve environmental impact assessments or complete rezoning.
"EIAs (environmental impact assessments) will have to be finalised with a turnaround time of three months, failing which an appeal will have to be lodged with the provincial director-general, who will liaise with the heads of treasury and agriculture who will form a bottleneck-breaking mechanism."
The premier added that though environmental impact assessments were necessary, they "shouldn't slow down development". "We have lost so much business we don't even know about" because developers with projects worth billions of rands were stalled by "a snail, or a frog". The same investors took their money elsewhere, he said.
T C Chetty, of Tongaat Hulett Developments and the SA Property Owners' Association, said: "If this is applied, it is probably the best news that the property sector in this province has had for some time. We've heard the words. We wait to see the action."
Metallon Property Managing Director Neels Brink, said: "It is wonderful that the government has recognised the problem, because it is really hampering the economy of the province. The process of objections is complex and people are abusing it. Any speedy resolution that is fair, just and equitable is to be applauded."


Brink said three issues needed to considered in any development: the social, ecological and economic. All needed to judged equally. In the past few years, he said, unfair bias had been placed on the ecological.


Brink said that in January the eThekwini council had approved a R400 million development and an objector had appealed to the province. The province still had to set a date for the appeal.
Ivor Daniel, President of the KZN Institute of Architecture, said: "Anything to reduce delays would be good. This continues to be a negative for investors and developers. How this pledge is implemented is critically important. The whole development approval process needs to be streamlined."
Responding to written questions in parliament on the environmental impact assessments backlog last year, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said that about 38 000 environmental impact assessment applications had been finalised across the country since 1997.
However, there were nearly 5 300 applications still in progress in March 2006. Of this pending total, 874 were from KZN.
greg.arde@inl.co.za