Courtesy of Amanda Watson, the following article appeared in our "knock & drop" the Northern Tribune on Tuesday.

"Sites for Sore Eyes

Lyndhurst: With development poised to explode along Johannesburg Road, things are about to get a lot messier before they get better.

Residents have been complaining for a while about problems, which always appeared to fall on deaf ears.

"Mosquitoes and rats are making our lives hell here. There are three, larvae infested, stagnant water features and it seems as if the owners of the property do not care about their responsibilities to the community," said David Kahn.

He lives next to the vacant BP station on Johannesburg Road, and feels the current owners are dragging their feet over the property.

Robbie Matticks, Operations Executive for Super Group Dealerships (SGD), explained there were a number of issues that had to be overcome before they could build.

"The property belongs to Lyndhurst Toyota. We've been there. There are no rats, nothing that's breeding rats or mosquitoes. We've had an insecticide company go through there twice already," said Matticks.

A legal merry‑go‑round between the previous owners and SGD, the BP shop owner and SGD, and BP Petrol and the previous owner has prevented their R40‑million development for a long time. The project involves the building of a car dealership which will be the new home of Lyndhurst Toyota.

"These have now all been resolved.

Before we start building, the fuel tanks still have to be removed by BP and a health certificate issued to the effect that the ground is clear of contaminants."

A complicated process still lies ahead before any sod turning is done.

"Corporate governance does slow things down, if it were up to us we would go ahead. We're hoping to start construction before the end of the year." Matticks is sending in a garden service to clean up the property in the meantime. The property where mechanics are currently housing themselves behind the garage, belongs to the City and Matticks is hoping to lease the land in the near future.

'It's not our intention to aggravate neighbours, but when construction does start, there's going to be a fair amount of dust."

It seems as if we are dealing with politicians here and not corporates. I visited this site this morning and in less than three minutes counted no less than eight huge rats.

The main reason for my visit was to investigate the pungent smell of burning plastic - VERY HEALTHY STUFF I might add.

The source of the smell was a fire lit by a female living in a zozo hut on the site - she was burnign some rubbish. I insisted that the security guard must extinguish the poison which he did.

Mr Matticks if you cannot find the rats give me a call and I will show them to you. My time was very limited this morning so I could not check on the mosquitoes I will report on this part of the issues in my next post