Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

 

The following is a extract from the daily e news service “In-Daily”.

Worth a read if you are interested in what is or is not happening with the 30 Year Plan.

THE South Australian Liberals have promised to produce a State transport plan if they win government next year.

The Liberals’ have also indicated support for “medium density” development in the inner-city rim suburbs with increased public transport, including a ring-route service around the inner city.

Labor’s long-serving former transport minister Patrick Conlon refused to produce a transport plan and new minister Tom Koutsantonis says he agrees with Conlon’s view that a special transport plan is not needed.

Liberal deputy leader and transport spokesperson Vickie Chapman told Indaily that the Liberals would take a promise to develop a transport plan to the next election.

She said the transport plan should have 10-year and 30-year goals for South Australia’s transport system.

The government argues that its 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide is sufficient, despite the fact that it’s essentially a technical land-use planning document – not an overall vision for transport in South Australia.

“You can’t just have a planning document,” Chapman said. “It’s like saying you’re going to have a roof on a house without detailing what’s going to be in it.”

Chapman said the Liberals’ plan would be publicly available, regularly reviewed and open to public comment.

The advantages of a transport plan included giving the community more information about future services in an area, which would allow people to make decisions about where to invest or live.

“There aren’t guarantees in it,” Chapman said. “But at least you have some idea of a direction.”

Chapman, who also has responsibility for planning, said there was a “strong case” for increased housing density in inner-suburban Adelaide, but she believed a maximum height of three to four storey buildings in defined precincts would be sufficient.

She stressed that any increase in density would have to be accompanied by improved infrastructure, including better public transport, and floated the idea of an inner-city service using a ring-route around the city.

There has been controversy, particularly among Chapman’s own constituency in the Burnside Council area, about a government proposal to increase building heights on some sections of major inner-suburban roads.

Chapman believes that the top section of Port Adelaide, where the Coke factory and the West End brewery are located, would be the logical first place to look at increased density.

Medium density housing there, she believes, would be particularly attractive to single people and professionals.