INLSA

James Koen, skating on Mauritius Avenue in Capri Village, is one of the Noordhoek Group pf skateboarders who have applied to be able to use certain public roads. Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams

Tanya Farber

A group of Cape Town skateboarders have appealed to mayor Patricia de Lille to rethink the city’s by-laws that ban them from the road.

The skateboarders, who call themselves the Noordhoek Group, are lobbying the mayor to open certain roads to skateboarders – in their case “longboarders” – at certain times of the day so that they can practise for national and international competitions without breaking any by-laws.

They submitted the application to the mayor about a week ago. “Skating, Rollerskating and Dangerous Acts” are prohibited on public roads, except where permitted by the city, according to section 15 of the city’s current by-laws.

But, said the group: “There are many great hills here in Cape Town and we do not want people getting into trouble from the metro police because they are practising on those hills.”

They have asked for permission to skate on Sapphire Way in Noordhaven, Silvermine Road in Noordhoek and Red Hill in Simon’s Town.

“We have thought about how we can skate more safely from the road user’s point of view and suggest that a sign noting that skaters can be seen on these roads at certain times, be put up at the roads noted above,” they said.

The Noordhoek Group said they had received support from Sagra, the South African Gravity Racing Association, and felt certain that if the city rejected their application there were other groups waiting to offer support regarding their efforts to have the sport recognised and legalised on public roads in the city.

Responding to the appeal, mayco member for transport, roads and stormwater Brett Herron said the application needed to be “fully investigated before any decision is possible”.

He told the Cape Times that the current by-laws existed because “the road is a public right of way to provide for the movement of people and freight in a regulated and safe environment”.

Herron said that skateboarding was “generally regarded as a dangerous activity on a public road because of the often haphazard movements of the skateboarders which endangered the skaters themselves and other road users”.

He added: “Many residents also regard skateboarding as a nuisance.”

Herron said that for safety and convenience, skateboarding should be undertaken in a closed environment where the activity could be managed and controlled.

But Noordhoek mother Elise Burns-Hoffman, who supported the boys in their application, said longboarding was recognised globally as a very serious sport, but that “drivers in Cape Town had been terrorising the boys by hooting at them, creeping up behind them and verbally scaring them”.

“If they are not properly protected, an inevitable trauma will occur,” Burns-Hoffman said. She said the sport was an activity with many positive spin-offs for the youth.

Ben Hetherington, a skater in Newlands, explained that other skateboarders who didn’t necessarily do it as a sport, would also benefit from the by-laws being revised.

“I bought my board for one reason,” he said.

“And that is transport. Most of my friends and the places where we get together are close enough to my house so that I don’t need to be driven.

“My board is perfect to get me from point A to B, so the by-laws are extremely inconvenient,” Hetherington said.

The applicants are: Angus Burns, Adam Lincoln- Lewis, James Jager, Camden Lategan, Thomas Rushovich, Michael McIvor, Peter Stubbs, Benjamin McCarthy, Cameron Adams, Daniel Anderson, James Koen, Ross Borchers and Matthew “M”.

tanya.farber@inl.co.za