Opinion

FAMILY FIRST MLC Robert Brokenshire has this week asked the Planning Minister the Hon John Rau MP to intervene in the residents’ dispute with the City of Norwood Payneham St Peters, saying they went over the top with two zoning proposals for precincts of St Peters, Joslin and Felixstow adjacent to the River Torrens.

"“Residents are quite right to be concerned about the way the River Torrens MDPA fails to comply with the State Government’s Transit Oriented Development plans – there is little or no public transport connecting with those pockets that will see up to 4 storey high rise”, Mr Brokenshire said.

This submission is particularly addressed to the councillors of this City, because you hold the power in your hand. This is your decision.

You have the choice of representing the residents of your city of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters, or perhaps representing the SA State Government, or maybe you feel like standing up for your loyal and hard working staff, or for some of the 500,000 people the government wants to bring here under its 30 year plan. Some of those people have not reached Australia yet and some of them may not even have been born.

We are a democracy. We are getting Russian style apartments, but hopefully not a Russian style autocracy. We all know that political parties need funding and that some of the funding legitimately comes in part from the development industry. Your State government might feel obligated to the development industry but you councillors need not. You are not politically aligned. You are whistle clean. You can vote with the people, with a democracy, against destruction of our way of life. Leave the autocracy to the big boys in State Parliament and let them be dealt with in the ballot box.

The first concern I would like to speak about tonight that I know many others in this room share is that the council has not consulted in good faith with the residents. If not for the work of the St Peters Residents' Association and especially Evonne Moore, many of us would have only learned about the changes when we looked out our bedroom window and realised that the house next door wasn't stopping at two storeys.

Many in Australia are disillusioned by spin from politicians in State and Federal parliament. I would have hoped that our local council could engage with residents in a constructive, consultative manner. I would urge the council to restart this process by engaging social planners first.

I attended a public meeting hosted by the NPSP Council on Tuesday evening, the 5th March, regarding the NPSP Rezoning Plans for the Sanitarium Site, the Caravan Park and several other proposed multi-storey sites alongside Linear Park from Hackney to Marden. The residents attending, with many speaking, were singularly united regarding their rejection to all the proposals – in favour of leaving the zones and the locations generally as they already are.