potted garden in Wynberg Improvement District

As we move into Spring, we review our initiatives to landscape, green and keep clean the Wynberg CBD to improve the urban environment for residents, businesses and visitors to the area.

We also remind you to save the date for our upcoming AGM on 16 October at 10am. Venue to be confirmed. Subscribe to our newsletter in the footer below for updates.

Greening the Wynberg area

The Wynberg Improvement District seeks to create an inviting urban environment for all of the people living, shopping, working and visiting the Wynberg CBD. For this reason, the WID explored different ways to improve the landscaping and greening of the Wynberg urban environment.

Over the last two years, the WID placed tree cages around all the newly planted trees close to the library and Magistrates Court. In addition, the area was made more user friendly with the addition of wooden benches for seating and more plants to beautify the urban environment.

As part of our latest project, we have placed large pots along the wider sidewalks in Main Road, planted with plants to further green and enhance the urban landscape. Fortunately the WID also acquired a water trailer this year to assist with the watering of plants in pots throughout the area.

Wynberg subways now reopened

The safe movement of pedestrians is very important to the WID management. The Wynberg CBD is a highly congested area where pedestrians, buses, taxis, commercial vehicles, and cars often compete to cross the same area.  In addition, the railway line dissects the greater Wynberg area even though people still need to move from one side of the line to the other. Until the COVID pandemic, this movement was facilitated in part by several subways facilitating movement underneath the railway line and linking both sides of Wynberg for pedestrian use.

After some months of planning, these subways are now once again being reopened in a partnership between the City of Cape Town and the WID.  After cleaning and repainting the subways, the WID will assist the City in monitoring these areas and will lock the subways at 19:00 each night and open the subways at 07:00 on weekdays.

The subways will remain closed on weekends.

Wynberg ID water trailer

The Wynberg ID is constantly exploring ways in which to improve the urban environment.  One of the most frustrating aspects is the tendency for people to use secluded corners and sheltered alleyways to urinate. This creates a very unhygienic and negative bad-smelling impression of our walkways and sidewalks.

Similarly, acts of illegal dumping often contain household waste with leaking content.

Both issues needed serious action from the WID. Although, in partnership with the City’s sanitation teams, they provide water spraying activities in the WID area, they cannot get to all the places needing this attention.

The WID commissioned the fabrication of a 1500-litre water trailer this year and equipped it with a high-pressure pump and hose system.  This new addition to our arsenal of tools allows the WID team to hose down and clean small areas and sidewalks with the high-pressure water.

In addition, the high-pressure water trailer provides the opportunity to clean some of the green public litter bins in the area.  The water trailer can also be deployed to water some of the potted plants that we have placed in the WID to beautify the area.