Three Park Lands attacks in one State Budget
The 2021 State Budget released on Tuesday 22 June contained funding for not one, but three attacks on your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands. All three of the attacks would whittle away more of your Park 27, which has already been subjected to decades of erosion.
As previously reported, the State Government is pressing ahead with plans for a massive new stadium that would effectively destroy the Open Green Public Helen Mayo Park next to the Morphett Street Bridge. The cost of the stadium has been revised down from $700 million to $662 million. However the cost to your Park Lands has not altered.
For some time, the State Government has been planning to remove the last remaining Open Green Space on North Terrace, for a proposed new Women's and Children's Hospital.
The State Budget put the price tag at $1.95 billion. The new WCH is scheduled for completion in 2027, on what is currently Open Green Public space in your Park 27, alongside the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
And the 2022 Budget revealed a further grab will be made for even more of your Open Green Public Park Lands with a proposed new multi-storey car park across the railway lines from the proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
A section of Kate Cocks Park is being used as a City Council storage area, but the Council has plans to re-green the site. The Adelaide Park Lands Authority was not consulted before the State Budget announcement on the State Government’s Plans to take over the area for a car park.
Now the State Government has apparently decided to rip up the statutory plan for your Park Lands, and simply confiscate this land for yet more car parking.
Perhaps the Park Lands should be re-named the Adelaide Car Park Lands?