Royd Frith, chair of Stanford’s Conservation Trust in front of the Willem Appel Dam, part of a new Wetlands project he is driving.

Royd Frith arrived in Stanford after Arniston, where he had a weekend house and loved dearly, lost its allure because of beach access restrictions.  Royd and Lindsay started looking for somewhere else and Stanford offered tranquillity, charm, diversity in nature, conservation, history… and, most important… birds!

They bought a plot eight years ago and moved into the house designed by Maureen Wolters two years later.  The landscaping was designed by Sean Privett, who is also part of the team at Grootbos Private Nature Reserve (read more).  “We recreated Eden here,” says Royd and it is one of the warmest and most-welcoming houses I’ve ever visited.  The exceptionally-deep veranda encloses two sides of the house and is my new veranda benchmark.

They sold their very successful labour broking company – which they had run together – to Dimension Data and arrived with enthusiasm about what could be done in Stanford.

Royd’s first civil society position was as deputy MD of Stanplan, a section 21 company established to right some of the wrongs in the community.  It exposed him to some of the problems that existed in the town at the time and Stanplan failed to achieve expectations.  This really is a pity because it was the perfect vehicle to drive change in the village.

Then he threw his energies into the Stanford Bird Club and the Stanford Bird Fair where he became chairman.  These have prospered and the Stanford Bird Fair is today arguably one of the notable events on the South African birding calendar.

When he first became chair of the Stanford Conservation Trust and Stanford Heritage Committee, there was rancour in the village over David Abbott’s proposal for a golf estate on the outskirts of the town.  When the committee was invited on a site visit to see what was proposed, he was the only member to go.  “There is no logic, common sense and vision in Stanford and that still exists today,” he says.

“All the civil society organisations were just going through the motions,” he says, “doing what needs to be done, with no real achievements and no real goals.  Tourism is a mess and there are undercurrents in the town – it is completely lacking in vision and empathy.  This shows in the tourism and ratepayers’ organisations.”

He accepted that some this this was his fault and, after a breakdown, Martin Ranger took over as chair of the Stanford Conservation Trust.  Royd took the decision to change his heavy-drinking lifestyle and gave up alcohol without counselling or assistance.  He started to refocus, exploring how the ethos of the village can be maintained and nurtured.

In October 2012 he stepped down as chair of the Stanford Bird Fair and asked new-blood, former advertising executive, Peter Hochfelden to take over, mentoring him for a changeover period.  “This has been an unmitigated success!” he says.  The involvement of William Stevens (who put Madikwe Reserve in Northwest province together) and sponsorship from his De Hoop Collection is seeing the 2013 Bird Fair reach heights nobody would have thought possible.

Another initiative the Frith’s have started is “Eagle Eyes” — fund-raising to enable the Stanford Bird Club to launch its Bird Life education initiative.  The first course has focused on bird identification for disadvantaged primary school learners, which required the acquisition of a number of binoculars.

As Ward 11 Councillor – and still a member of the Stanford Conservation Trust – Royd also tackled the development of the Stanford Wetlands that wind through the village to the Klein River.  “Bea Whittaker wrote the motivation for why the wetland should be recognised and it is the finest piece of journalism and motivation I’ve ever seen,” he recalls.

He goes on, saying “And I want this included… Bea is impulsive… but she has done some of the finest conservation work this village has ever seen.  She is doing lots to establish a vision for Stanford.”

Selective clearing of reeds has started and the Friths have donated a huge ‘Wendy House’ in the garden of a house he’s just purchased to Overstrand Municipality for use as a bird hide.  It’s so large that it’s being converted in four bird hides – two for the Willem Appel Dam in Stanford and two for Gansbaai — at least one of which will be wheelchair friendly!

The redevelopment of the Wetlands offers one element in joining Stanford and Stanford South, the affluent and poorer areas.

With his re-election as chair of Stanford Conservation Trust in April, it’s not “business as usual.”  He takes over from Martin Ranger, saying “you won’t find a more solid committee man than he.”  But there’s a new team and everything is being run by focused sub-committees.

“Basil Whittaker has been looking after the Wandelpad (path) along the river and it’s never looked better.  Guy Whittle is looking at the meent (common or Market Square) and what should be done there.  Bernie Oberholzer’s proposals for the Wetlands and to integrate Stanford and Stanford South are being pursued, along with a more attractive entrance to the village.  Overstrand Municipality has won the Greenest Town award and funding from this is being sought to green, integrate and grow Stanford’s two communities.”

“Conservation needs credibility.  The Stanford Bird Fair needs to become one of the great bird shows of the world.  Our ratepayers’ Association is dormant.  Tourism doesn’t exist and is our biggest single embarrassment.

“We need a Stanford Partnership where everybody buys into a Vision for Stanford and everybody helps drive it forward.”

Martin Ranger – contributing to civil society

One of the advantages desirable small towns have is the quality of new residents they attract.  Energetic retirees and people who have taken early retirement, looking for a better lifestyle, is one group.  Another comprises people, looking for a better lifestyle, who either believe they can make a living in the town or can work from home generating their income elsewhere.

They bring expertise that less desirable towns just can’t attract.  They’re demand more and usually get it.  The towns get even better.

Martin Ranger took early retirement as the head of Foschini Group’s retail jewellery division, which includes American Swiss and Sterns jewellers.  He and Annie lived in Hout Bay, where he had been chair of the Hout Bay Ratepayers Bokkemanskloof Homeowners’ Association, before moving to Stanford in 2005.

They chose Stanford after looking at all the “usual places” – Greyton, Prince Albert, Riebeek Kasteel, etc.  A property developer friend told them they couldn’t go wrong buying property in Stanford since, with the new road to Cape Agulhas, values could only rise.

They bought the only plot still available in the new section of the village in 2004 and set about planning a home with a separate self-catering cottage – to give them something to do and provide for two business class air tickets to London a year.

Their move to Stanford came at the time of one the village’s boom periods.  Silliery Estate saw a lot of building and filled up with new people – baby boomers, young retirees, new people with energy.  “They were predominantly English-speaking, well-travelled and educated, and eager to make an input into civil society,” he recalls.

In 2006, Martin joined the Stanford Conservation Trust:  “I’m not a ‘greenie’ but the architectural side is one of my interests.”

In 2007 – Stanford’s 150^th anniversary – he joined the tourism organisation and became vice-chair when Eric Mair of Stanford Valley Guest Farm resigned from the position.  Jami Kastner was chairperson.

“Overstrand Municipality gave us R150,000 to spend on the celebrations, which went well, and we came out of that at a new level with new perspectives.  The anniversary gave the committee new drive, focus and energy.

Jami dropped out for three years, producing three children, and Martin became acting chair in 2008.

In 2010, there was the big change from Information Bureau to the Stanford Association of Tourism & Business, trading as StanfordInfo, which allowed them to expand their membership quite dramatically.  At present, StanfordInfo has 117 members of which 42 are accommodation establishments.

What have the challenges and achievements been?  “One of the big problems is always money because we’d like to do so much more.  We seem to spend more time fire-fighting than is ideal.

“The successes have been the raised operating levels of the office and our website is better, but not as good as it should be.  Our below-the-line advertising has been very good – and to an extent we have Rina de Wet to thank for that – but we need to leverage it more.

“Above-the-line advertising costs money which we don’t have (– the organisation’s total annual budget is between R300,000 and R400,000).  The viral revolution has its place although it’s not something I understand completely.

“Before 2007, Stanford had no branding and we came up with “A Village Green”, embracing activities like the Bird Fair and heritage activities to target a well-heeled, middle-aged, getaway market.

“This was reviewed two years ago by the new, younger committee.  The view was that we’ve got those people, now we need a younger group to fill the restaurants and pubs and who will appreciate Stanford as a safe haven for young children.  In the end we came up with “A taste of village life” and we have expanded our business.  In winter we still see the older group and summer does see a much younger crowd, with their children.”

(In the absence of any brand expertise, StanfordInfo has fallen into the same trap that many tourism organisations fall into.  They confuse branding with logos and campaigns.  “A village green” and “A taste for village life” are campaigns, not brands.  The confusion is demonstrated by the fact that  StanfordInfo (the organisation) has its own, completely separate visual identity which often wins out over the town’s visual identity.)

When it comes to Team Stanford (or Brand Stanford, if you like), Martin concedes that this is one area where they haven’t been successful at all.  “We’re nowhere nearly as united, presenting a shared sense of values, as Greyton, for example.”

Martin makes the point that another big challenge is growing awareness outside the Overberg for Stanford.  Overstrand Municipality established a Destination Marketing Organisation for the whole area in 2008, which Martin chaired for six months.  He was very keen to leverage the very strong Hermanus brand in the name (Hermanus Bay for example), but other towns wouldn’t hear of it.  In the end “Cape Whale Coast” was adopted as a compromise.

He doesn’t believe that the Overstrand Municipality’s Whale Coast DMO marketing is effective and is yet to see a marketing plan.

Conservation Trust
This is one of Stanford’s success stories.  Its membership spirals whenever there are burning issues in the village, reaching 100 or more, and drops to the current 30+ when things are more or less under control.

Its active sub-committee is the Heritage Committee.  Overstrand Municipality refers every building plan for all buildings over 60 years old to this committee for approval.

The Trust also manages and maintains the Wandelpad – the walk alongside the river that is one of the village’s greatest assets – and the village’s leiwater system.  Stanford is one of the few villages where leiwater still exists – the system of sluices that leads water to many older properties for garden purposes.

The Trust has worked very hard at building a good relationship with the municipality, and this has been to the benefit of everyone in Stanford.

Martin makes the point, though, that “there is a limited number of active participants in civil society and there is overlapping between the different organisations.”  He believes that there needs to be amalgamation where possible, perhaps between the Conservation Trust and the ratepayers association, for example.  “But senior members of society object.  They say one can’t be confrontational in one area and co-operative in another.”  Surely the aim is to get the municipality and others all reading from the same hymn sheet so confrontation is never a requirement?

Stanford is yet to establish a shared brand that lives in the hearts and minds of all who live or visit there.