A majority of Adelaide City councillors seem to have confused the Adelaide Park Lands with the "magic pudding".
In the classic children's story by Norman Lindsay, the magic pudding never shrinks in size, no matter how many slices are cut from it.
Are your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands a magic pudding?
The City of Adelaide has been flip-flopping over the past two months over whether it should support the Marshal Liberal Government's plans to cut a large slice from your Open Green Pulic Park Lands, destroying Helen Mayo Park with a $662 million, 15-thousand seat stadium. The Government has refused to consider alternative sites, such as at Hindmarsh.
Helen Mayo Park - targeted for destruction
The City Council's response has been confusing, largely because of the factional split within the Council.
On 14 September the Council voted to co-operate with the Park theft.
On 28 September a Council committee voted to "oppose building on Park Lands"
On 26 October, the Council reversed its earlier (14 September) support for the stadium:
and then on 9 November, the Council backflipped again to support the stadium
Curiously, though, the support on 9 November was conditional on the idea that construction of a stadium would cause "no net loss" of Park Lands.
The Council decision did not explain what was meant by "no net loss". The Council did not specify what, if any new areas of Adelaide should be added to the Adelaide Park Lands.
Helen Mayo Park and (inset) doctor and medical educator Helen Mayo (1878-1967)
Neither Premier Steven Marshall nor his Planning Minister Vickie Chapman have offered nor suggested that any of the numerous State Government buildings on Park Lands would be demolished.
The Premier has bought off potential opposition from two rowing clubs on the site of the proposed stadium by offering to incorporate new facilities for the two clubs inside or underneath his proposed new stadium. ($$ subscriber-only link:)
These two rowing club building, along with hundreds of trees, are in the way of the proposed stadium.
However, removing two rowing club buildings and replacing them with a $662 million, 15-thousand seat stadium would represent a massive overall loss to your Park Lands. The stadium would occupy at least 2.5 hectares; and so far no-one has suggested any site from which an equivalent area of Park Lands might be reclaimed.
On the contrary, the State Government wants to re-zone 70 hectares of your Park Lands, handing them over for future development. So the prospect of "no net loss" from a stadium seems like a fantasy - at best just a meaningless slogan.
Targeted for destruction: blue gums in Helen Mayo Park
Even if some unwanted buildings were to be demolished, the State Government has many other sites that it wants to hand over to developers in your riverside Park Lands.
Unlike a magic pudding, slices of your Adelaide Park Lands will not miraculously re-appear after they are eaten by developers.
If you don't believe in magic puddings, then please join more than 2,600 others, and sign our petition to the Premier. https://www.change.org/p/steven-marshall-mp-save-helen-mayo-park
