Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has declared a dispute
with the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) over the tolling of
"important" roads in the city.
The city said on Tuesday that a formal letter had been
written to Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele to inform him that an
intergovernmental dispute had been declared with Sanral over its plans to toll
the N1 and N2 between the city and the Cape winelands.
"The city is opposed to these plans and has declared
the dispute in terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework, Act 13 of
2005 as it believes that both the environmental impact assessment and intent to toll processes were flawed and that Sanral has not addressed the City's
concerns," it said.
The city said the socioeconomic impact of tolling had not
been adequately assessed and were not considered by the minister of environmental affairs when he granted an environmental authorisation for the
tolling of the N1 and N2.
The "broad impact" on the metropolitan road
network had not been assessed and viable alternatives to tolling had not been
considered.
The tolling on the N1 and N2 is likely to divert traffic
onto municipal roads which will impact on the capacity, operation and
maintenance required on these roads.
This will stretch the city's limited budget for road
maintenance and construction as Sanral has not committed any funding to cover
the increased maintenance costs, the city said.
"The city's policy on the provision of road tolls
indicates that tolling should not be used as a means of funding road
construction and maintenance within the city's boundaries because it is not
cost effective and is inequitable," the statement said.
Mayoral committee member for transport, roads and
stormwater Brett Herron said the city had been left with little choice but to
declare an official dispute, as all repeated attempts to engage Sanral on the matter had failed.
"As the authority that will be directly impacted by
this proposed tolling, the city commented extensively during all the phases of
both the environmental impact assessment and intent to toll public
participation process and engaged with Sanral at various intergovernmental
meetings held during 2010 to raise our concerns," he said.
"We also tried to engage them on a number of occasions
this year in attempts to resolve our dispute. Sanral refused to discuss the
city's concerns and indicated that they are only willing to explain their
policies and strategies.
"Our letter to the minister is our last attempt at
resolving this dispute before taking legal action."
Sanral was not immediately available for comment.