News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[how_good_is_he]

To Clr Yarwood,
Talking about the homeless/low income when are they starting that building in Light Square for them?
Also has the ACC got a cafe yet in the new bus station - if not go back to Villis and let them have late hours/liquor license.
Also when is the old bus station coming down?
What ever happened to all the fairy lights on the trees on North Tce and why not light up all the heritage buildings at night like it was during the festival.

[Omicron]

...and what about the homeless people who scour the cbd bins for 10c cans? it's their income! you can almost set your clock by their frequency at each bin.

Smothered in plastic bags?

[david]

NOTES FROM COUNCILLOR Issue 24.pdf

(196.58 KiB) Downloaded 201 times

My regular notes listing some recent Council decisions plus the dilemmas facing a pragmatic park lands preservationist, qualified support for 50000 at Adelaide Oval and a 'beef' about slow progress at Vic park post-Clipsal,
David

[SRW]

They're not needed any more. In fact, it won't be long until recycle bins are redundant. The process of sorting recycling has been industrialised and up-scaled dramatically, and most importantly: outsourced. Companies pay good money (or least they did when metal prices were high) for the right to go though your garbage!

The City of Tea Tree Gully subscribes to this system, I'm lead to believe.

I have to disagree. I think it's important that people are conscious of the waste they generate and what happens with it, and recycling bins force people to think about it. I also can't believe that it'll ever be more cost effective to sort waste for recyclables post-disposal rather than at the point of disposal (if that's what you're saying, of course, and not something about zero waste). Nor should it be. It's a Good Thing for people to be personally responsible.

[david]

NOTES FROM COUNCILLOR Issue 24.pdf

[david]

The Building Code of Australia (BCA) does set out requirements for toilets and other important things such as exit widths and distances for different types of buildings. Number of patrons is determined by a formula based on square meters of floor area. In the case of licensed premises the Licensing Court also has requirements. The problem is there are not enough inspectors to be continually checking the actual number of patrons in a venue at any given time.
Council has selected a tenant for the Bus Station cafe and is now in the process of doing the landlord fit-out, such things as toilets, air con etc. so we should soon have a decent cafe operating at the bus station.
David

[Howie]

Hi David, thanks for your post again. Just one thing, I can't see the file you uploaded. Can you try uploading it again, or give us a link to Issue 24 of your newsletter. Much appreciated.

[AtD]

Hi David, thanks for your post again. Just one thing, I can't see the file you uploaded. Can you try uploading it again, or give us a link to Issue 24 of your newsletter. Much appreciated.

It works for me in his first post.
http://www.sensational-adelaide.com/for ... php?id=720

I have to disagree. I think it's important that people are conscious of the waste they generate and what happens with it, and recycling bins force people to think about it. I also can't believe that it'll ever be more cost effective to sort waste for recyclables post-disposal rather than at the point of disposal (if that's what you're saying, of course, and not something about zero waste). Nor should it be. It's a Good Thing for people to be personally responsible.

I'm not an expert, but I'd guess it'd be more "cost effective" to process unsorted rubbish as more valuable materials can be extracted as not everyone sorts their garbage into recycling diligently.

[Howie]

Thanks mate. I think it might have been the spaces in the filename.

[Norman]

Council has selected a tenant for the Bus Station cafe and is now in the process of doing the landlord fit-out, such things as toilets, air con etc. so we should soon have a decent cafe operating at the bus station.
David

Good to hear. The empty space is a bit of an embarassment at the moment. Too bad though that Vili's won't move there, it would have been great to have another 24/7 cafe venue in the CBD.

[Ben]

From The Messenger:

CITY COUNCIL BUDGET - Vic Park in, Grote St out

by Adam Todd

THE $16 million Victoria Park upgrade is the centrepiece of this year’s City Council draft budget, but the Grote St revamp and Morphett St bridge viewing platform have been scrapped.

Town Hall will release its 2009/10 budget for public consultation from today, April 30.

Rates are set to increase by 5 per cent or $60 for the average property.

Other charges such as car parking fees are also poised to rise by 5 per cent across the board.

Town Hall plans to spend $175.8 million this year, down on the record $187.5 million it spent last year.

Among the key projects are:

* $4.5 million to build an affordable housing complex at Whitmore Square;

* $2 million towards the Victoria Square upgrade, as part of a $13.5 million commitment over the next three years;

* $1.4 million for the first two stages of the $16 million Victoria Park redevelopment;

* $1.25 million to replace the roof at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre;

* $1 million to underground powerlines on West Tce, Gray St, Walter St and Thomas St.

Lord Mayor Michael Harbison said the budget’s theme was environmental sustainability.

“Victoria Park is the centrepiece and it captures that theme very strongly,” he said.

A further $1 million has been set aside for other capital works but not assigned to a specific project.

Mr Harbison said the council favoured spending that money on upgrading Rundle Mall, however that could change if there was strong support for a different project during the public consultation process.

Town Hall is forecasting an operating surplus of $8.9 million.

Mr Harbison said the global financial crisis had made little impact on the budget to date.

“It isn’t projected in these numbers to greatly affect the city, council rates will hold up, we are projecting pretty steady fees income from car parking and other areas and we still have a lot of building work in the pipeline,” he said.

The council will borrow a net amount of $8.6 million this year, with overall debt projected to climb to $57.6 million by the end of the financial year.

Mr Harbison said the increase in debt was to make up for a shortfall in revenue expected to flow from the delayed Balfours site developments and the sale of the Wingfield dump property holding.

What’s been scrapped/slashed

$1.1 million Stage 2 of the Grote St upgrade;

$300,000 seating areas and viewing platform on the Morphett St bridge;

Rundle St market funding cut from $300,000 to $100,000

Public information sessions

* May 4 2.30pm-4pm at the North Adelaide Community Centre, 176 Tynte St; 5.30pm-7pm at the Methodist Meeting Hall, Pilgrim Lane;

* May 7 10.30pm-noon at the South West Community Centre, 171 Sturt St

[Norman]

While I would have liked to have seen the upgrade of Grote Street go ahead, I do like the idea of undergrounding power lines, on West Terrace especially.

[AtD]

Town Hall is forecasting an operating surplus of $8.9 million.
...
The council will borrow a net amount of $8.6 million this year

Come again?

It's unfortunate the council has decided to go it alone on Victoria Square and do a mediocre job rather than seek State funding and give it the makeover it deserves. The council lacks the financial capacity to do so itself. The heart of state capital deserves more than a pavement upgrade. It is also worrying that it'll take three years to get the funding - will it be a giant mud pit of a construction site in the mean time?

I'd rather they use the money to finish the North Terrace strip.

[david]

NOTES FROM COUNCILLOR Issue 25.pdf

(736.25 KiB) Downloaded 165 times

Issue 25 of my Notes on Council matters.
The conundrum of Harris Scarfe's and some thoughts on the State Government's 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide with Adelaide city as a 'supa TOD'

David

[Omicron]

Town Hall is forecasting an operating surplus of $8.9 million.
...
The council will borrow a net amount of $8.6 million this year

Come again?

It's unfortunate the council has decided to go it alone on Victoria Square and do a mediocre job rather than seek State funding and give it the makeover it deserves. The council lacks the financial capacity to do so itself. The heart of state capital deserves more than a pavement upgrade. It is also worrying that it'll take three years to get the funding - will it be a giant mud pit of a construction site in the mean time?

I'd rather they use the money to finish the North Terrace strip.

Hear, hear. Whatever you do, do it properly or don't do it at all.