Motor racing trumps everything
by Shane Sody
The State Government’s slavish devotion to carbon-emission motor sport will be taking yet another bite out of your Park Lands for two months later this year.
The so-called “green corridor” east-west pedestrian and cycling route across Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) will be closed for 60 days, starting from 23 October.
The “green corridor” across Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16)
Every day, many hundreds of commuters use this convenient cross-park route between Grant Avenue at Rose Park and Halifax Street in the city.
Last year the route remained open during the months of construction of a motor racing circuit before the Adelaide 500 was held in early December 2022.
This year, the Minister for motor sport (Premier Peter Malinauskas) has determined that the route should be closed off to cyclists and pedestrians for a full 60 days, to build this sort of thing:
From Monday 23 October through to Friday 22 December 2023 you will be unable to cross Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) by foot or bicycle.
The “declared area” outlined in blue is the area in which the Motor Sport Board is not answerable to the City Council for any of its activities on your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands.
The State Government’s Motor Sport Board has provided Kadaltilla / Park Lands Authority with a PowerPoint presentation of its planned road closures and its planned works program.
Its PowerPoint also envisages the laying of even more bitumen, this year, within Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16).
Bitumen roads laid within Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) and the adjacent King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina (Park 15) in 2022, to assist motor racing events.
Neither the Park Lands Authority nor the City Council has any power to affect these encroachments on your Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16).
Under Section 20 of the South Australian Motor Sport Act 1984 the Minister (being the Premier) must “consult” others but the Minister has the final say. The City Council was advised on Tuesday 11 April of the Motor Sport Board’s intentions.
The priority given to carbon emission motor racing also seems to trump SA’s declaration of a “climate emergency”
The closure of the east-west “green corridor” will overlap with the closure of Bartels Road across your eastern Park Lands, for the Harvest Rock festival, during an 11-day period in October.