Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

Last night Council agreed unanimously to a motion moved by myself, seconded by Cr Anthony Lapidge and amended in a subtle way by Cr Michael Saies, to accept in principle the work done on the planning concept and move onto the next stage of the process.

This allows us to start looking more seriously at the Master Plan for this precinct. The Consultants had put a concept together where they tried to address all the wishes of all the affected parties, clubs and passive users alike. In other words the plan (concept) in front of us last night was recognising as best they could, the issues that were raised by you out there during the consultation phase, and modified as a result of elected member observations and also those of the clubs, via the reference group.

Many attempts to elicit detail by elected members last night, as was the case at last week by the Reference Group, is an indication that the time has come to start looking at a bit of detail. To start shaping the concepts into a model that we can take to the community. The motion has called for a report to be tabled at Council’s September meeting.

During this time elected members will walk the precinct to get a better feel of the geography and the amenity.

During this time questions around whether to shift the northern boundary into the very wide Frederick Street will be addressed, along with is there a need to demolish the Bowling Club and incorporate them into a new building suggested for the south west corner of the oval, will be answered.

We will also look into whether or not we can physically accommodate the return of the Sturt Cricket Club. Whilst the concept plan is suggestive that this can be achieved the current location of the practice nets will trespass into vital open space. It may be possible, depending on what building footprint will be found to be pursued in the south west corner of the Oval, to relocate them to this area and save the many trees that would have to go if left where currently suggested.

Also during this time we will investigate whether or not Council can work toward a mutually acceptable contractual situation, included the financial model.

We are moving now to an exciting stage of this process, the stage where we put a bit of detail to the concepts. If we can navigate our way successfully through this stage, we can start looking at drawings suitable for construction and/or even some on site work where detailed construction drawings are not required and budgets can be established to pursue the work.

Let us all not forget one important thing here. Turning whatever we come up with into reality will depend on external funding, primarily from the Federal Government and will likely have to be completed in stages over a span of years.