Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

My Vision

My Vision is to see Unley’s City of Villages remain the great place we know today and into the future. A place where our kids and grandkids will want to live, work and play, and raise their families as we have.

Achieving my Vision requires an empathetic approach to designing our future housing stock. Likewise our future streets, our green cover and our parks and gardens. It requires also ensuring that the community can continue to access the range of community services they have now and more.

Housing

The previous State Government’s 30-year plan and their population assessments/targets have challenged all of us. To avoid Adelaide trespassing into our farming lands, north and south of the City as our population inevitably does grow, we must accept some increase in population density in the inner suburbs.

Unley Central Concept

My vision is that we manage this increased density so that we maintain a high standard of living. This includes rezoning only those areas that can accommodate increased density including the main road corridors and Unley Central.

To ensure good quality development we must work with the State Government. We can’t leave this to the government. They do not have any local area intimacy.

By taking a leadership role, rather than relying on the Government, we can influence the results to reflect local nuances.

Streets

Excessive traffic burdens the streets of the City of Unley. Commuters from the south use our road network as commuter routes. Roads like East Avenue and Leah Street in the west and Duthy Street in the east should not be commuter routes.

As a result, my vision is to see commuter traffic diverted to Adelaide’s ring routes. Furthermore, in the west, this means diverting commuter traffic to South Road.

Parking in our residential streets should be organised on a hierarchy that residents followed by employees and clients of our small businesses have preference over commuters using Unley as a Park n Ride.

Footpaths

Unley Paved Footpath

Now that we have converted our footpaths from bitumen to pavers we must direct our resources to ensure they remain safe for people of all ages to use.

We need to ensure as high a level of service to protect those of our community using our footpaths within tight budgetary constraints.

Trees

Goodwood Oval Morton Bay Fig Tree

We face a continuing tension between preserving trees for their health and aesthetic benefits to society and the risks they present to people and buildings etc. My vision, therefore, is to ensure we have and police policies that achieve both.

Open Space/Recreation/Active Lives

Goodwood Oval Grandstand

My vision is to continue promoting improved sporting facilities. The success of the proposed upgrading of the Goodwood Oval Grandstand is but the first step in realising this vision.

Forestville Hockey Fields

My vision is to see this project come to completion. It is to see a similar solution for the Millswood Croquet Club. Likewise, to find the right solution for the use of the soon to be vacated Hockey field at Goodwood Oval. I wish as well to assist the Forestville Eagles to address their accommodation needs.

Our sporting clubs play an ever-increasing role in ensuring our community is healthy and active and utilise the limited facilities we have.

Rate Increases

Balancing the Budget

In a world of so many competing needs, our ultimate challenge is to achieve results in all of the above but with limited financial resources. I am committed to keeping rate increases a low as possible. I wish to do this so as not to overburden each of us ratepayers.

Communication

improving communication skillsAn integral part of achieving this is that Council communicates with its community in a caring and understanding way. That we listen to what your concerns are, that we respond to those concerns quickly and professionally.

I will continue to promote to Council that our staff receive training in communication skills to achieve this.

Hopefully, Council, its management and staff, its elected members, and its community share this vision and are up for the challenge to design the future of Unley. By working together, this vision can be realised.