Aquatic Centre consultation farce
Consultation on a proposed new Aquatic Centre site has turned into a farce.
Hundreds of responses to APA's ongoing community survey, demanding a win-win for both swimmers and your Park Lands, have been with-held from a "community reference group” that was hand-picked by State Government consultants, to gauge the views of the public on a new Aquatic Centre site.
Do you want to save these trees? You will need to go over the heads of Government-appointed consultants and talk directly to the politicians who appointed them. Taking our 1-minute survey is the simplest way to do that.
In a survey that is still running until the end of July, most respondents so far have expressed support for building a new Aquatic Centre on an inner-suburban brownfield site, close to the city and better public transport, to allow a restoration and re-greening of the current Aquatic Centre site.
Of the 550 responses received by Friday 22 July, 467 of them (86%) wanted to see a new Aquatic Centre built on a site that is not on your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands. Responses to this survey are still being collected (until 31 July) at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KGZ7FKT
Only nine percent of survey responses, so far, want to see another Aquatic Centre built on your Open Green Public Park Lands. This includes 2% who want the centre rebuilt on its current site.
However, the State Government’s consultants refused to provide APA survey results to a hand-picked “community reference group”.
Of the 467 responses who wanted a new Aquatic Centre built somewhere other than Park Lands (received by Friday 22 July) many commented on the need to have the centre close to public transport in an area that would benefit most from such an important new community facility.
Meeting earlier this week, the Government’s so-called “community reference group” was instructed to ignore these responses, and consider only the ones collected by the State Government. The Government’s narrow survey, which closed on 10 July, provided a choice of only three site options, all within Denise Norton Park / Pardinpardinyilla (Park 2) of your Adelaide Park Lands.
APA’s Deputy President Ingrid Wangel was part of that “community reference group” on Tuesday 19 July and was frustrated to find that APA’s survey results seem to be regarded by Government consultants as irrelevant, or unimportant when assessing potential sites for a new Aquatic Centre.
Denise Norton and her daughter Ingrid Wangel, who is APA Deputy President and Park Ambassador for Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2). Rear: Shane Sody, APA President.
The State Government’s threats to axe scores of mature trees in Adelaide’s heritage Park Lands is in direct contrast to the Federal Labor Environment Minister’s vows this week to Protect, Restore and manage Australia’s environment.
Nevertheless there can still be a win-win for a new Aquatic Centre, and full restoration of Denise Norton Park in your Adelaide Park Lands. There are two things you can do.
First (if you haven’t done so already) register your views in our 1-minute survey, and ask your friends to do the same. We will provide your responses directly to State MP’s, bypassing the consultants who have refused to take them into account.
Second, write directly to:
Like the Federal Environment Minister, we want to “Restore” and “Protect” while supporting a new Aquatic Centre on a nearby brownfield site.
We want to RESTORE the existing site of the Aquatic Centre to make it Open, Green, Public.
We also want to PROTECT the remainder of Denise Norton Park from the threat of losing dozens of mature trees and their complex ecosystem, from a new $82 million Aquatic Centre built on Parklands.
There are multiple other brownfield sites around Adelaide that could be used for a new Aquatic Centre. The State Government has powers to acquire any lands it needs, and so you can suggest where they should start looking.
If you haven’t done so already, please register your views in our 1-minute survey.
The results of the survey might be irrelevant to the Government's consultants, but the politicians who appointed these consultants can still be persuaded by your views. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KGZ7FKT