We pay high rates in Camps Bay and see little benefit in terms of municipal services provided. Why should we have to pay more to get the services we should be getting already?

Our taxes subsidise municipal functions everywhere EXCEPT Camps Bay. Whilst ideally our taxes should be sufficient to keep Camps Bay at the standard we are used to, the reality is evident to anyone who goes to one of our parks or the beach.

At the moment, we benefit greatly from generous donations of money and time to security and cleanliness schemes from business and individuals, but it is not sustainable to rely on the same people indefinitely.

We will gravitate to the lowest common denominator if we rely on the State. Our town will be only as clean and as safe as any other township in the City. The small amount that will be added to our rates and spent directly in Camps Bay will preserve and enhance the value of our properties. It will replace many of the costs you currently have. Llandudno, Hout Bay and Clifton all have CIDs. That will push the crime and grime towards us and make it impossible for us to avoid the CID charge by moving anywhere else.

This is, in our view, the only option we have to preserve the value of our properties, responsibly address the social problems we have and put in place long-term programmes. It would be great if we could rely on the City to do all of this, but the reality is simply that we already rely on money and time invested by citizens and if we don’t formalise those systems, things will get a lot worse.