The Independent Democrats in Paarl East will hand over a petition of over a 1000 signatures to the Superintendant of the Chicago Police Station at 12H00 on Saturday afternoon.

The petition is signed by over a 1000 residents of Paarl East and is against the relocation of the Paarl East Police Station to Chicago, next to the Alandale Prison.

‘The result is that whenever one of our Paarl East residents want to report a crime they have to travel over 10 km to get to the new police station,’ says Mr Conrad Poole, the ID’s ward 27 councillor.

The police station was relocated earlier this month.

‘Immediately after the relocation criminal activity began to increase. Our people are not safe anymore. We want a satellite police station in Paarl East, instead of a white elephant police station that is too far away for all of us to travel to,’ Poole says.

‘Some of our people do not have transport and they have to walk to the Paarl East Police Station. On the way, they have to walk through areas where there is a high crime rate.’

The handover of the petition will be the culmination of an ID road show through the streets of Paarl East.

The road show will start at 10H00 on Saturday morning at the Shoprite in Klein Drakenstein Avenue and will climax in the handing over of the petition at the now vacant Paarl East Police Station, which is on the corner of Solomons and Klein Drakenstein Avenue.

All members of the media are invited to attend.

For media enquiries, please call Steven Otter, ID Media Officer, on 084 233 3811