Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Redan Kerosine (Pvt) Limited (RKL) has filed opposition papers to a lawsuit by Alex Park homeowners seeking to block its plans to construct a service station in the area.
This comes after Alex Park residents took RKL, Mark Campbell Hounsell, City of Harare (CoH), CoH Department of Works, and town planner a Mr Mudzengerere to court on 04 August.
In the court papers, Hounsell is cited by Alex Park residents to be the one to have sold the property to RKL, a local energy firm, where the proposed service station will be built.
The residents argue that the potential development infringes on the “environmental rights” of the residents that include the right to due process and accountable town planning procedures.
They also accused CoH, CoH Department of Works and Mudzengerere of actively obstructing their rights to fair and reasonable administrative conduct by failing to follow peremptory provisions of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act.
Elena Gonye is the first applicant of 49 of the Alex Park residents who brought the initial lawsuit to the High Court.
Gonye resides close to the proposed development.
In the notice of opposition dated August 17, 2023, RKL director Lindsay Eleanor Earle disputed that the due processes were not followed. Said Earle:
Other than the first applicant, Elena Gonye, no evidence has been placed before the court regarding the basis of interests of the other 48 applicants in the development at the corner of Swan Drive and Churchill Avenue.
There is no evidence that any of the 48 applicants resident in the area are affected by this development.
They have not disclosed the addresses where they live and how they would be affected by this particular development.
There is no evidence placed before the court showing why they claim they ought to have been served individually with the notice of the application by the second respondent (Hounsell).
She further argued that not all the applicants own or live in the properties to the proposed development.
The Alex Park residents who spoke to The Standard said that they were not furnished with a copy of the change of use from residential to commercial.
However, according to the notice of opposition, RKL stated that Christopher and Mary English, Edward Mapokotera and Overbrook Investments gave special consent for the property development.
All of these people are directly impacted by the development.
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