Sensational-Adelaide.com

Parklands cash stoush erupts

06 May 10 @ 12:02pm by Emily Charrison

BUILDING: The City Council is refusing to waive almost a quarter of a million dollars in construction fees for the new South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute to be built alongside the new state-of-the art hospital.

The State Government called on the council to scrap the $225,000 fee to use the north Parklands for the next two years during construction.

But elected members voted that if SA Health is to store equipment, lunchrooms and offices on 1550 sq m of the Parklands, and create an access road for trucks, then it would have to pay the full permit fee.

Construction workers from Hindmarsh Development SA, the company building the $200 million centre, will move into the area this month and remain on-site until the project is finished in December 2012.

At last week’s meeting Cr Sandy Wilkinson proposed the full fee still stand, against staff advice.

He said by slashing the permit fee, the council would in turn have to cut its own services and programs.

“That’s foregone income that ratepayers would lose, and it means we’d have to cut other things,” he told the City Messenger after the meeting. Cr Wilkinson said the council never wanted the health hub on North Tce, next to the government’s new hospital, and that it should have been built in the centre of town where it did not “encroach on the Parklands”.

“If the government bought a site in the square mile they’d have to pay market value but they chose this site because it’s free.

“They don’t place any value on the Parklands.”

Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association president Kelly Henderson said the institute, funded entirely by the Federal Government, “dishonoured” Colonel William Light’s vision to keep the city’s green belt as dedicated open space.

“The Australian Government’s proposed contribution of $200 million of taxpayers’ funds for a monstrous medical research facility on the people’s Parklands represents a complete dereliction of their duty to conserve our nation’s significant sites,” she said.

“It is time to call a halt to political concrete and destruction of our Parklands and its vistas and to restore the Adelaide Railyards, William Light’s campsite, to open space.”

SA Health media manager Victoria Purman said paying the full permit fee would not impact on the project’s budget as it had always been included.

She said SA Health appreciated its close working relationship with the council and its “co-operation” in providing access to the Parklands.

“It is time to call a halt to political concrete and destruction of our Parklands and its vistas and to restore the Adelaide Railyards, William Light’s campsite, to open space.”

“It is time to call a halt to political concrete and destruction of our Parklands and its vistas and to restore the Adelaide Railyards, William Light’s campsite, to open space.”

crawf wrote:

“It is time to call a halt to political concrete and destruction of our Parklands and its vistas and to restore the Adelaide Railyards, William Light’s campsite, to open space.”

William Light's campsite?, thats a new one.

crawf wrote:

“It is time to call a halt to political concrete and destruction of our Parklands and its vistas and to restore the Adelaide Railyards, William Light’s campsite, to open space.”

William Light's campsite?, thats a new one.

Pikey wrote:I can see from my office window that piling has commenced.

I'm changing this one to U/C.

iTouch(myself) wrote:It's strange considering the building is a very controversial design. WHY CAN'T IT BE THIS FAST FOR ALL BUILDINGS!!