There is an increasing sense among government officials, politicians, developers and public in general that Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are not working as well as they could and are limited in their intended outcome at best. A variety of reasons are often given. The Friends of the Liesbeek cite a lack of commonsense and a failure to follow public participation processes as key elements of the growing frustration with EIAs. Recent experience of the Friends with the development of the double storey parking facility attached to the Rondebosch Village shopping centre is a case in point.
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