Green Scorpions Target Controversial Garden Route Motocross Track

The owner of the Harper’s Creek motocross track on the edge of the Harkerville Forest has been told to stop clearing indigenous vegetation.

• The Green Scorpions have taken action against Brent Harper, owner-manager of the controversial Harper’s Creek motocross track between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.
• He has been told to stop clearing indigenous vegetation and to rehabilitate the area.
• The Bitou municipality has received numerous complaints about noise from the motocross track, which is on the edge of the Harkerville forest.
• Harper has applied to rectify his unlawful activity in terms of the National Environmental Management Act.
• He declined to talk to GroundUp on the record.

The owner of a controversial motocross track between Plettenberg Bay and Knysna has been told to stop clearing indigenous vegetation without permission.

The Green Scorpions investigating the Harper’s Creek track near the edge of Harkerville forest have served owner-manager Brent Harper with a notice under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA). Clearing indigenous vegetation requires authorisation under the act.

Harper must also submit a rehabilitation plan to the Western Cape’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) for approval.

Earlier, Harper had already been forced to apply for a special “consent use” in terms of Bitou Municipality’s local zoning scheme because his property is zoned for agriculture and was being used unlawfully for other purposes without permission from the municipality. This application will be decided by the Bitou Municipality Planning Tribunal at an as yet unknown date.

Harper paid R3.2-million for the property in 2021 and transfer took place in 2022. Since then, Google Earth images reveal significant changes at Harper’s Creek and its Facebook page lists a motocross track, EnduroX track, Enduro loop, kids’ track and camping grounds on the property. The Facebook category is given as “Race Track”.

Complaints to the provincial environmental authorities that Harper was clearing indigenous vegetation on the property to make motorcycle tracks were indirectly confirmed by Harper himself in a June 2023 Facebook post headed “Enduro loop extensions getting done this week guys”. A 27-second voice message states: “Okay all you endurance riders, we’ve been whacking the bush here for you guys, as you can see … We’ve got tons of new trails for you guys. Lots of open fast stuff and then back to technical stuff. We’ve been going for it now through the bush. So, see you at the weekend.”

Following the investigation and finding by the Green Scorpions, Harper has exercised his right to apply for voluntary rectification of this unlawful activity through a so-called section 24G application in terms of NEMA.

Such applications include a mandatory fine of up to R5-million or five years in jail. Paying the fine does not mean that the application will be approved and criminal charges are still possible. They also include a mandatory public participation process.

DEADP spokesman Wouter Kriel confirmed Harper’s application. He said the department was still waiting for Harper to supply additional information as required.

For more than two years, Bitou Municipality has received complaints about noise pollution from the Harper’s Creek track – particularly at weekends.

In October 2023 the municipality sent Harper a letter instructing him to “cease the unlawful utilisation of the property” within 14 days. The letter stated that the municipality had “reasonable grounds” to suspect that he was using the property for an “Enduro Dirt Bike Track as a “Tourist Facility/Private Sports Arena” and for “the rental of Quad Bikes as the Tourist Facility”, contrary to the approved zoning scheme.

“You are hereby instructed in terms of Section 86 of the Bitou Land Use Planning By-Law to cease the unlawful utilisation of the property within 14 days of the email delivery of this notice.”

Harper initially ignored the municipality’s instruction and continued motorcycle activities on the property.

In March this year, the municipality laid a criminal charge against him.

However, a month earlier, Harper had started the process of applying to regularise planning approval for the track, appointing planning consultant Fritz van Zyl to formally apply for “consent use” from the municipality for motorcycle activities “on existing off-road trails” for up to 40 riders during daylight hours.

Acting Bitou Municipal Manager Victor Felton said in response to GroundUp’s questions about the issue: “The municipality is not in a position at this stage to provide comment in any detail, other than to say the landowner has been provided a municipal notice of non-compliance and the landowner has made application to regularise the use of the property. The application process to regularise the use of the property is sub judice and the time frame at this point undetermined.”

Informal settlement

One of the motocross track’s immediate neighbours is the Forest View informal settlement – a low-density settlement of about 60 houses and 180 residents, according to now slightly dated estimates.

The settlement was established in 1995 on municipal land, partly to accommodate workers evicted from nearby farms. The land, which is also zoned for agriculture, has been punted for use as an agri-village to promote successful emerging farmers in the Bitou area.

The community compiled a petition with just under 100 signatures, opposing zoning approval for the motocross track, and asked another direct neighbour of Harper, Derek Saul, to help them deliver it to the municipality.

Saul explained that the community had been affected by the noise from the motocross track since 2023, and had approached him for help because of his own outspoken opposition to the track.

He said the municipality’s planning department had accepted the petition, but had pointed out to the signatories that because they were not title deed holders, their objections would not carry much weight with the planning tribunal.

Saul, a sculptor, beekeeper and beer brewer who has lived in the area for the past 13 years, had already launched his own petition against the track.

Harper responded to Saul’s petition with a R400,000 defamation damages claim, payable in ten days. His legal letter of 30 July also demanded the removal of comments about his facility on social media posts by Saul.

“As soon as I got their letter, I wrote back immediately, asking for details on how my statements have been defamatory and false. But I’ve heard nothing since,” Saul told GroundUp.

“Basically, I’ve had what appears to be a SLAPP suit thrown at me to the tune of R400,000 for opposing a development in an ecologically sensitive area.”

Harper declined to discuss the issue on the record with GroundUp.

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