Council has now had a briefing on the alternative options thrown at us at the last minute by the City of Mitcham.

Our administration has had a good look into these alternatives while the original Worley Parsons recommendation undergoes public consultation.

Five new options have been presented by the City of Mitcham. Only one of these would appear to have any credibility. It is co-incidentally one of the three no dam options offered. It will involve, as I felt and noted in my last posting (as will all 5 options) a significant impact on the City of Unley.

It is my view and this is shared I believe by our Senior Management that significant work would need to be done on ensuring the feasibility of this option before the City of Unley were to consider it is a viable option. There is every chance with the size (width and depth) and length of culverts required running through our streets that it simply is not feasible. The width of our suburban streets generally is narrow and there is already significant infrastructure housed by them already.

Given this infrastructure these culverts would need to be on the edge of the streets they are planned to occupy and there is therefore significant risk in my mind that OUR trees would be threatened in order to save the trees in the Dam area.

As I indicated in my last blog I will need convincing that this (or any other new options) has merit enough to consider as an alternative to the one that is currently under public consultation. If I and/or my fellow elected members can be convinced it has merit and vote for it, it too will have to go out for public consultation before going to the next stage.

And don’t expect any excavation, in my opinion, for two years because whatever option is advanced to the next stage there is much detail design work to go and this has potential to unearth unthought-of constraints that have the potential to have to go out again to public consultation.