BULAWAYO Car Park Association has called on the city council to review its policies on car parks so that they are clear on inheritance issues after the death of an owner.
The association’s chairperson Albert Sibanda made the remarks during a breakfast meeting in Bulawayo recently.
He said council should review its policy to accommodate beneficiaries of the car park’s deceased owners.
“(We believe) the policy on inheritance for the deceased estate is not user friendly. It is so aggressive in empowering car park owners,” Sibanda said.
He said they were losing business to undesignated car park sites, with council doing nothing about it.
“These undesignated car sites range from open space, even in front of shops, underdeveloped church premises, industrial mechanical workshops that are close to residential areas and service stations,” Sibanda said.
“The lease policy restrictions are hindering us from developing our premises to improve revenue inflows. We are also concerned about our bills that lack consistency.”
The association was formed in 2022 to capacitate and empower members with the hope of bringing sanity in the car parking industry.
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In a speech read on his behalf by ward 22 councillor Ntombizodwa Khumalo, Bulawayo mayor David Coltart said the policy sought to guide the allocation and operation of secured car parks within the city.
He said this was to ensure they operated within the confines of the terms and conditions of their leases and that they did not become an environmental eyesore.
“It also intends to give guidelines to control the proliferation of illegal use in secured car parks. Over the years, however, there has been an escalation of illegal activities within the City of Bulawayo’s car parks, which prompted the need to formulate a policy to guide the allocation and operation of secured car parks,” Coltart said.
“The most common illegal activities that have been noted in car parks are gas retailing, tombstone carving and selling, grinding mills, brick moulding, carpentry, construction of residential dwellings, rearing of chickens, pick-up and drop-off points for travellers to rural areas, to name a few.”
He said the advent of secured car parks helped communities in curbing criminal activities within high-density suburbs such as draining of fuel from cars at night, theft of car batteries and cars.
