Newlands East residents warn of 'land invasion crisis'

Tensions between community members and land invaders have reached boiling point. 

Locals say they've had to step in to stop a large group from illegally occupying a vacant plot near Riverhorse Valley over the weekend. 

Martha Linderboom, who is a member of the community watch group, says they've been taking turns to guard the open plot of land after people. believed to be from an informal settlement in Effingham, tried to move in and build homes. 

"There is this bush and we as the community quite often get together and cut this bush because people that work in Riverhorse Valley, they often get robbed and the people duck into the bush so you never find the perpetrator. 

"So now if you are going to have shack dwellers come in there it's going to make it 10 times worse. We going to have a bigger problem with electricity and water that is the main concern."

Acting ward councillor Allen Peterson believes political instability in the ward is partly to blame. 

"There was even speculation that a ward councillor from Ward 34 spoke to me stating that I've allowed people to do that and unfortunately it's not true. 

"The problem that we are having is that there are so many rumours now and with this ward not officially having a councillor and by-election underway there is a lot of political drama taking place."