Can Council ignore 98%?

by Shane Sody

If public consultation means anything within local government, then the Adelaide City Council presumably will be persuaded, by your responses, to protect your Park Lands.

That’s a big “IF”.

A massive 97.9% of respondents to the Council’s recent consultation have urged the Council NOT to sign over a three-hectare part of your Park Lands to the State Government for its promised two-storey megalith $135 million Aquatic and commercial centre.

Nearly every respondent to the City Council wanted the Council to “Restore and Protect”; not “Restore and Attack”.

Recently, the Council undertook the bare minimum three-week consultation period, to ask for your views on a proposed 42-year lease of this site in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) and a proposed construction licence to begin on 1 October.

The results were presented on Thursday 24 August to Kadaltilla / the Park Lands Authority. The Authority makes recommendation to the City Council and the State Government. The Council, in turn, will make its decision, likely before the end of September 2023.

A report by Council staff, outlining the responses received, made the surprising recommendation that the Authority should ignore the 97.9% of respondents who want a win-win: a new Aquatic Centre on a better, brownfield site.

Response statistics presented to Kadaltilla/Park Lands Authority on 24 August 2023. Note that this is not a NIMBY issue, with comparatively few responses coming from North Adelaide.

The Authority is chaired by Lord Mayor, Jane Lomax Smith, who last month received the names of more than 5,000 people who had signed a petition seeking the same outcome. The same list of names has also been provided to the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, and to the Member for Adelaide, Lucy Hood.

It’s not too late to add your name to the petition if you haven’t already. The petition has grown in the past month to more than 7,400 names.

The Lord Mayor, the Premier and Ms Hood are all aware of the groundswell of community backing for a win-win. Yet so far, neither the Council nor the State Government is acting upon your views. Neither the State Government nor the City Council is looking for an alternative site for the new Aquatic centre.

On 24 August, Kadaltilla / the Park Lands Authority effectively ignored the 98% community response, and merely passed the buck to the full Adelaide City Council for a subsequent meeting in September.

Why should you care?

The State Government admits that its plans for a $135 million megalith aquatic and commercial centre would require the destruction of 15 regulated trees and seven significant trees (not counting other smaller trees). Its plans also include expanding the hard surfaces within the Park for more roadways and 118 more car parking spaces.

Community consultation last year revealed that most respondents wanted a new Aquatic Centre on a brownfield site, close to public transport; such as an industrial site in Thebarton, Hindmarsh, Bowden or Brompton, that could be landscaped and greened, while accommodating a new Aquatic Centre. The old West End brewery site is the most obvious, but not the only potential alternative site.

The State Government is purchasing 524 properties to upgrade South Road, but has refused to consider purchasing even ONE site for a new Aquatic Centre.


What Can You Do?

Councillors need to hear directly from you, before they vote on this at a meeting expected in mid-to-late September. Contact the Lord Mayor, and all Councillors individually to ensure that they get the message directly; i.e. not filtered through the Town Hall bureaucracy.

Clicking on any or all of these email addresses will open up a short simple draft email, alerting each Councillor to the Government’s false claim about returning land to your Park Lands, and asking each Councillor, in turn, to Love Your Park Lands and help the State Government find a better, brownfield site, to secure a win-win outcome for swimmers and your Park Lands.

Here is a plain text of the suggested email that you can copy and paste.

You can also:

  • ATTEND the Council meeting at the Adelaide Town Hall, when the item is on the agenda (it was previously scheduled for Tuesday 12 September but has been postponed, likely to a date later in September);

  • SEEK PERMISSION to make a deputation of up to 5 minutes; i.e. to speak directly to Councillors before they debate this matter. Here’s where you can register to make a deputation. A deputation request needs to be lodged by 12 midday on the day prior to the scheduled meeting.

Read more

See our ongoing coverage of the proposed new Aquatic Centre: