Page 14 - Blue Valley News June/July 2021

ESTATE NEWS

SECURITY NEWS

he Blue Valley Homeowners Association an elevated number of events in the estate. and suppliers have been engaged regarding
prioritises the safety of its homeowners, This is linked to all events postponed during the procurement and housing stock on site to
Ttenants, visitors and associates during the hard lockdown period, which then adds eliminate the downtime.
their stay in the estate. It is therefore intensive pressure on the gates, as a relatively
important that challenges and victories are high number of visitors are processed, Perimeter security
communicated for homeowners to realise especially on weekends. The estate has invested in enhanced camera
their good spending. Below are points of technology on its perimeters in order to
discussion. The estate processes thousands of visitors’ address soft spots identified, and has the
transactions daily, and weekend transactions latest artificial intelligence which is key to
Access control are almost double this number, hence securing the perimeters. This technology is
The service provider for the visitor’s resulting in congestion. Processes are in connected to the backup power facility and
management system was changed to Glovent. place to eliminate such inconvenience and there is no downtime during load shedding.
This change was triggered to improve service bottlenecks at the gates, and homeowners
delivery in the estate and ease the traffic flow are encouraged to communicate at least two Security measures and compliance
at the gates. days in advance if anticipating a high volume Blue Valley homeowners must be applauded
of visitors. This will enable the security team for the significant change in behaviour
Residents need to appreciate that this is a new to strategise effectively and proactively, and relating to compliance, in the best interests
system and therefore there are still challenges not be caught by surprise. of estate security. There has been a drastic
in getting to the desired operational output improvement in the vetting and enrolment
from the investment. The system capacity Blue Valley is one of the estates that took compliance, but there is still a small fraction
and capability were investigated on several the lead early to adopt the use of wave that is non-compliant and tends to fall
estates in the magnitude of Blue Valley. reader technology. This was an effort to short of the rules from time to time. This is
safeguard the homeowners and tenants handled by the risk office case by case, and a
We have encountered challenges with the from the dangers associated with traditional willingness to comply is evident.
system which is work in progress. There is still biometrics, where residents would place
room for improvement from all stakeholders their finger on the reader. Most estates opted Due to the pandemic, there are delays from
to improve the efficiency of the system, and for the use of cards and tags, but this is not the Department of Home Affairs, especially on
homeowners are encouraged to download safe as cards or tags can be easily passed on the vetting related to foreign documentation,
the Glovent app. It is most convenient to or lost and this poses a huge security risk. as they are somewhat understaffed.
process visitors using codes and this enhances With the wave technology, a balance was
the efficiency from the guards during access/ struck between security and minimal risk Risk associated with winter
egressing processing protocols at the gates. to contracting illness associated with the Everyone wants to keep warm during the
It takes at least 30 seconds for security to devastating COVID-19 pandemic. winter season and there are trends relating to
get access approval from the homeowner elevated fire incidents during this time.
when calling in the absence of a pre-cleared There is a responsibility for visitors and
code, if the resident answers promptly. One homeowners equally, where boom gates are
can imagine the delay if the resident does bumped, and this expense is recovered by the In the past, the estate has had fire outbreaks
because of heaters and gas stoves being left
not answer the first time. During the relaxed responsible homeowners. This has an effect
disaster management level 1, there has been on the downtime of the damaged booms, unattended and causing fires. Residents are

12 • Issue 3 2021 • BLUE VALLEY NEWS