Page 60 - KBHA BULLETIN 5
P. 60
57
the Silvermine Valley to Simon’s Town. (Fig. 3.28.) Council considered these proposals but
rejected them and on 30 April 1974 reaffirmed their existing proposals. Not satisfied with
this, Ward 17 put forward an alternative Silvermine proposal. The Metropolitan Planning
Committee entered the fray proposing instead a single Boyes Drive carriageway coupled with
the upgrading of Ou Kaapse Weg.
Financial implications now began to play an increasing role in deliberations about
construction: the Boyes Drive scheme ran across City Council land and would therefore be its
financial responsibility, but it would serve few Council residents directly because the access
points would be situated in Divisional Council (Westlake) and Fish Hoek Council areas. On
the other hand, the Silvermine Scheme ran largely through Divisional Council land and
implied that they would be financially responsible – but they were apparently not interested in
this. Furthermore, the City Council had certain recreational plans for their land in the
Silvermine Valley, notably a recreational dam and a nature reserve, but these would be
destroyed by the Silvermine route and the money already expended in acquiring the land
would therefore be wasted. Then, Fish Hoek Municipality favoured the Silvermine route as
the Trappies route would consume a large area of developable rates-generating land, whereas
the Silvermine route would fall outside their area. The Province regarded themselves as the
only authority capable of affording the Silvermine route but it was a luxury they were
unwilling to support. The Provincial Executive concurred with this on 26 November 1974,
the main reason being the very much greater cost of the Silvermine route (R46 million) as
against the R22 million of the City Council’s scheme. (PRE Report to the Director of Local
Government, 17 September 1974.)
Strategic implications also had to be considered: the SA Navy were not in favour of the
Silvermine route because of its strategic vulnerability should its two tunnels (3,9 km and 0,8
km) be blocked.
Meanwhile, metropolitan transport planning priorities had entered the equation, and towards
the end of 1975 the City Council was charged with drawing up a larger Metropolitan
57
