This newsletter contains the following items:

• SPRA Annual General Meeting
• Council Budget 2023-24
• Ultra Tune LED Advertising Sky Sign
• Traffic Matters
• Norwood Ambulance Station
• Advance Notice - SPRA Meeting & Special Event

The newsletter is available as a PDF for downloading and printing.

The 2023 SPRA Annual General Meeting was held in late March with over 60 people attending. Following the meeting Denise Schumann delivered a most intriguing presentation on spies, communists, and their presence in St Peters in the 1950s and 1960s.

The main items on the agenda were the Committee’s Report, changes to update the Association’s Constitution and the election of the Officers for the following year.

The following people were elected to the Committee: -

Since the AGM Brenton East has been added to fill one of the vacancies. There is still one spot on the committee that has not yet been filled. Please contact David Cree (0418 622 163) should you be interested.

Follow these links to see the:

• Committee Report
• Revised Constitution (PDF)
• Minutes of the AGM

Council Budget 2023-24

The City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters is currently working through its budget and rate setting process for 2023-2024. SPRA made both verbal and written submissions to Council on the proposed Budget during the community consultation period which closed last Friday.

The SPRA submission covered severel concerns, the major one being the proposed expenditure of over $32m on the redevelopment of the Payneham Memorial Swimming Centre, and the potential for this to cause an extreme risk to the City’s financial position over the next few years. Council will need to borrow significant amounts to fund the project. It appears that the Council is determined to pursue the project, even though an independent Prudential Report to the Council’s Risk & Audit Committee pointed out the long-term risks associated. Tenders for the project will be called in the next couple of months and at that time Council will need to determine whether to proceed, and if so, in what form.

Our submission also pointed to concerns about the Net Financial Liabilities Ratio (NFLR). The NFLR is the ratio of how much the Council owes in comparison with its operating income. The NFLR before Covid was between zero and 30% (2017-18 to 2019-20), during Covid (2020-21 to 2021-22) it was around 30% and in this budget, it is 75%. The NFLR is projected to rise to around 115% with borrowings for the Payneham Pool. We understand that the normal NFLR for Councils ranges between 60 and 80% of revenue, with 80% being at the high end.

Other matters in the SPRA submission included: -

• Council’s Long Term Financial Plan 2021-2031 – in need of revision
• Raising the Bar events - $38,000 cost.
• Food Secrets Ambassador / “celebrity influencer” - $ 40,000 cost
• St Peters Child Care Centre - $100,000 loss

The full SPRA submission can be found on the Budget 2023-2024 Response page.

Ultra Tune LED Advertising Sky Sign

A development application has been lodged with the Council for a 12m x 4m LED advertising sign on the intersection of Stephen Terrace & Payneham Road above the Ultra Tune establishment. The application is currently out for public consultation and SPRA intends to make a submission to the Council Assessment Panel (CAP) that approval should not be given.

The proposal will look like this.

The concerns about this development include: -

• The advertising sign is large and will be a distraction to motorists at this busy signalised intersection.
• The constantly changing advertisements will be predominantly for third-party goods & services, unrelated to the Ultra Tune business.
• The size of the proposed sign is 12 metres wide and 4 metres high. The height is almost the same as the walls of Ultra Tune.
• The sign will add to the visual clutter of the intersection and be a distraction for motorists.
• All other nearby business advertisements are of much smaller scale or, as in the case of the Avenues Shopping Centre, much further away from the intersection.

The details of the application 23004466 can be seen on PlanSA website in the PublicNotificationDocuments-149PaynehamRoadStPeters-5679114.pdf.

If you are concerned with this proposal, you can make a submission by Wednesday 28th June. The easiest method is to go to the following website and follow the prompts for Application 23004466.

When the SPRA response is submitted, it will be added to the Ultra Tune Advertising Sign Application page.

Traffic Matters

Traffic issues such as speeds, behaviour, safety, and access have always been at the forefront of SPRA’s concerns and activities.

Over the past year we supported residents in First and Second Avenues of St Peters who are concerned with “rat-running” through their local streets, and the problems with trucks in Frederick and Janet Streets Maylands.

The Association has recently been approached by a member who lives on Richmond Street, Hackney to complain about inappropriate and dangerous traffic speeds in the street.

Richmond Street is extremely narrow, especially on the western end towards Hackney Road. Additionally, the footpaths are quite narrow and are often further restricted by vegetation growing out from the properties, causing pedestrians to step onto the carriageway itself.  These footpaths are well used by many of those who use the Adelaide Caravan Park and who walk to and from the City through Botanic Park.

In addition to the Caravan Park, there are always children and others using Twelftree Reserve & its playground, the corner FIX. Speciality Coffee shop, and going to & from the Hackney Kindergarten. The street is also a major cyclist entry point into the Torrens Linear Park tracks.

The area has a current speed limit of 50km/h which is much too fast for the conditions, and even the proposed reduction to 40km/h will be too high.

Richmond Street is not only a major access/egress point for residents of the area, but it has also always been a favourite route for ‘rat-runners’ who head for Harrow Road or Eighth Avenue.

SPRA is further concerned that the Hackney Hotel re-development will cause a large increase of vehicles using the local streets in Hackney North, and this will exacerbate the congestion.

In our view these factors together represent a significant risk of death or injury to pedestrians and cyclists using Richmond Street, and urgent action to lower this risk is required.

We have suggested some actions that Council could take to try to reduce speeds, to make the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists and to discourage the ‘rat-runners’.

• Implement the 40km/h zone even before the full study has been undertaken.
• Install speed humps near Regent Street, Eton Lane and mid-block between Torrens Street and Harrow Road.
• Install Pedestrian and Cyclist awareness signage at the Hackney Road and the Harrow Road ends of the street.
• Install Stop signs on Richmond Street at the Torrens Street intersection.
• Liaise with SAPOL to monitor and police traffic speeds.

The SPRA Member who raised the issue, Marysia Marchant, has created a petition to Council which can be signed at FIX. Speciality Coffee Shop, 27 Torrens Street College Park. Alternatively, members can download the petition and get others to sign. Any signatures collected can be returned to Marysia or to FIX.

If you would like to find out more, please email marysiamarchant@hotmail.com.

Norwood Ambulance Station

Residents in Maylands have expressed concerns at the new SA Ambulance Station that is proposed to be erected on part of the vacant land created by the recent road widening project on the corner of Magill and Portrush Roads.

The concerns raised include access to and egress from the site, both during construction and when the station is operational, the timeframe for construction, site landscaping, the use of unused land and most importantly the degree of community consultation in the planning process.

SPRA raised the matter with the Council’s Manager of Development Assessment and was advised that: -

• A Development Application was lodged in early June.
• As this is a Government project the Council is NOT the body to assess the development. It will be in the hands of the Government’s SCAP Panel.
• No Public Notification of the project is required and as a result no public submissions can be made to SCAP.

SA Ambulance Service however will conduct a Community Information Session on Thursday, 20 July 2023 between 5.00 - 7.00pm at the Norwood Town Hall. This session is only for information purposes and will not effect on the planning process itself.
The State government is a law unto itself!

Advance Notice – SPRA Meeting & Special Event

The Muriel Matters Magic Lantern Show
Sunday 27 August 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Venue St Peters Town Hall Banquet Room

The St Peters Residents Association in conjunction with the Muriel Matters Society presents a wonderful retrospective afternoon of history with a Magic Lantern Show of glass plate slides depicting 19th century Adelaide as you have never seen it.

This event commemorates suffragette Muriel Matters performance on 22 August 1896, when she took to the stage at our very own St Peters Town Hall wooing the audience with readings from Walt Whitman.

Join us and travel back in time when the Magic Lantern Slide Show was the preeminent form of entertainment around the world. What more could you ask on a winters afternoon but to share history. All welcome, no cost, just a gold coin donation and afternoon tea.

Numbers limited so to register your interest contact Denise on (0408 081 934) or email SPRA at info@stpeters.asn.au.

The event page will be updated with more information closer to the date.