Be careful what you read in the paper. If you do you would believe that the City of Unley is going to impose savage costs and time constrictions on its poor citizens in a blatant grab for cash. You would also believe that we are doing this behind their backs and imposing something on them against their will.
It is true that Council will be asked, probably next month, to consider ways of managing the use of our Parks by Commercial Organisations using them for fitness programs. A report is being prepared by our administration.
And how did the press find out about this? Because our administration has taken the proposals they have drafted to public consultation before putting it to Council.
Open air fitness programs have become very popular and their popularity appears to be growing at a significant rate. Most of these commercial operators (yes they make a profit out of you and me) have yet to apply to Council as is required under the Local Government Act for people conducting commercial activity on community land for approval.
As council has a duty to ensure that our parks and gardens are accessible to our residents and ratepayers we need to develop a policy to control these activities, from a number of perspectives including but not limited to Occ’ Health, access to the same parks for our general community (mm’s and dads and their kids), accessing the lawns for regular maintenance by council staff, availability of toilets, managing activities that can disturb the adjacent residents like noise and light etc.
So a proposal has been put out for public consultation and this process continues until 23rd September. You have another two weeks therefore to have your say and we in the council need to know what you think before we give consideration to the policy.
People living adjacent to these parks and/or ovals have a vested interest in getting this policy right so please contact the Council Office on 8732 5111 for a copy of the public consultation and let us know what you think.
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