Introduction

The Fair Go For Gawler blog page enables disaffected people and groups within the Gawler and surrounds community to communicate with each other and other interested parties about the  Delfin Gawler East project and the Development Plan Amendment (DPA) which supports it. Visitors can voice their grievances about, or support for it. The blog is also tending to ‘morph’ into a vehicle through which  broader aspects of urban development in our region can be explored, even how the excessive power of vested interests…on both sides of politics….. is eroding the public’s confidence in our version of democracy.

WOW! This blog site has now had its 1,500th visitor since it was created only a few months ago. THANK YOU TO ALL.

Cheers from the blogmaster - Jow Bloggs

A 12 year history of bypass political football

Readers will be amazed at this collection of facts and extracts from The Bunyip and other articles as far back as 1998. The people of Evanston Park have been political footballs for this whole time.  See how political expediency is affecting us and how the title of the road has changed. Click here for an-extracts-history-of-an-eastern-bypass-from-1998-v13

Piccolo accuses Council of secret meetings and non negotiable attitude towards alternative to Bentley route.

MP Tony Piccolo in his mid November speech to parliament has accused Gawler Council for holding secret meetings, being non transparent and fixed on their position about the southern route for the link road/connector road (bypass). Mr Piccolo says he has listened to the people of Evanston Park and has suggested alternative routes which would still be within Gawler Council’s boundary, but says Council remains committed to the Bentley route. Click here to read Mr Piccolos speech to parliament on this matter. Community Cabinet Grieve 19 November 2009 (3)

For us Evanston Parkers, destined to have a highway within a few metres of our back fences, the degeneration of communications between Council and Govt is most concerning, and adds yet another chapter to the earlier post article about how we have been political footballs for nearly 12 years.

Gawler East DPA deferral

Minister Holloway at the November 9th community cabinet planning forum (which many of us didnt get to because we had been led to believe the date had been changed) made a statement that he would not finalise the Delfin Gawler East DPA until he was satisfied the negotiations between the stakeholders had addressed the issues raised by the proposed development, particularly who is to fund the infrastructure/roads.  MP Tony Piccolo reasserted this in his speech to parliament the following week. One wonders how the dozens of community and Council objections will ever be addressed.

Australian democracy – an overhaul needed?

This article is a little outside of the planning issues normally floated on our community blog. There is a link though, given the elections mode we are entering.

Australians have long been known for our laid back lifestyle, shorten the tall poppy syndrome, and for not taking ourselves or politics too seriously. But its time for us to to wake up, invest the time and resources for the public to become educated about civic understanding and the various forms of democracy, critique our version of it and the system’s integral linkage with capitalism.

We are watching on as the most successful economy of the first half of this century- China – forms its hybrid blend of communism, socialism, capitalism and poor human rightsism.  We wont ever create a perfect world or a perfect political system, but one thing is for certain – a system of government which has less party alliances and indebtedness to vested interests, and one which allowed the likes of Nick Xenephon to grow in number, would be healthy.

From an international perspective, Australia and Canada are often compared. We are similar in population, land size and economies. Politically though, they are years ahead of us. It has been a country on a mission to cull the vested lobby, having completely removed union and business funding of electoral parties. What a great step forward for modernising democracy - fewer ‘umbrella shelterers’ and forcing those representing us to be more individually accountable. Conclusion: 0ur version of the Westminster system clearly needs a Canadian style overhaul.  My view is supported by former Governor General Major General Michael JefferyAC, CVO, MC  as shown on the SBS documetary titled Decadence: The Meaninglessness of Modern Life, hosted by Pria Viswalingam. Australia’s political system and greed driven society has many wrongs. Click here for more on Viswalingam’s docos… Decadence_(SBS_TV)

Where are the buyers going to come from?

Yes, we have some ships to build and the 3rd Army squadran moving to Salisbury thanks to the Fed Govt. , maybe even some mining activity into the future. But one wonders where the droves of homebuyers wanting to come to Gawler are going to come from…those with jobs that is. Manufacturing and the Wine Industry have been two of the backbone industries for this state for many years. Our wine markets have been hit for a six by the world financial crisis and massive overplantings by big corporations using tax incentives. Manufacturing is in big trouble. Mitsubishi has gone, Holden has lost market share and is clearly struggling with many workers having taken redundancy packages. Amazingly the Govt seems to have stood back to watch Bridgestone’s demise, soon to erase 650 direct manufacturing jobs and probably a thousand more in the way of suppliers and service providers…this occurring in our premier’s own electorate! Now we have the federal industry minister saying he will commit another $11million towards creating new manufacturing jobs in this state. Why couldnt Mr Rann have saved those we already had? Bridgestone makes great quality products but struggled under our crazy open door imports policy, yet tyres are something that will always be needed and a critical requirement for any future automotive industry.  Why cant we do more to  hold onto and help the industries with jobs that we already have?   A whole lot more real estate agents will not make up for Bridgestone Mr Rann.

Back to my original point. It could be a long, long time before there are enough people with jobs to create the demand for the envisioned Gawler explosion.

Govt. planning forum date debacle

Its 2nd November and I receive a letter from MP Tony Piccolo inviting me  to the Community Cabinet – Planning & Devt Forum on 9th November  at the CWA Hall, Tod St., 5pm to 6pm. Yes I will go, even though the time slot is a shocker, given it would be  peak traffic time and many of us work well past 6pm nowadays. It was a good excuse to leave early for a change, and it would be good to see ministers Holloway and Conlon on our turf.  

But then a couple of days later another letter arrives from Mr Piccolo saying the venue has changed to the Uniting Church hall, and it would be on 9th December at the same time. Ok, no problem. I changed it in my diary.  Then I opened The Bunyip this week to see the meeting had been on the date originally advised…They had been, met, had some more media mike pics taken and gone! 

Upon querying Mr Piccolos office, I learnt they had mucked up the second notice, had realised it well prior but decided not to send yet another notice of change because they thought it would cause even more confusion. Good one.  Any chance of it been a deliberate ploy to minimise the number attending, given this community turns up in droves when planning is mentioned? Normally that type of thought wouldn’t even cross my mind, but very cross I am. Now lets see if theres a public apology from Mr Piccolo and attempt made (as futile as it would be) to get them out here again before Christmas.

DPA rezoning may be given thumbs up before Christmas so Govt has time to spin infrastructure spend promises as part of election campaign

Its that time of the electoral cycle the unfunded promises of govt spending for the future start to be spun. A frequent visitor to this blog site phoned me (wouldnt communicate on blog for fear of reprisals) to say he/she had been told by Delfin that their latest from the Govt was that everything is on track for the rezoning of Gawler East and Evanston Park , and that it would happen before Christmas so the Govt could make infrastructure spend announcements leading up to the elections in March. He/she was in the know because he/she is one of those wanting to sell a large piece of land to them and they had been keeping him/her in the loop.

Whats should we make of this? A couple of things come to mind immediately. 1. The Govt’s community cabinet planning and devt forum  held at Gawler this week was just another cynical effort to say they have undertaken broad consultion, whilst the rezoning will go ahead anyway. 2. The closeness of Govt and vested interests in rezoning is becoming more and more evident, further worsening the public’s distrust of the process. Greens MP Mark Parnell says we have a strong likelihood of the dangersous Qld culture of  mates supporting mates coming to the fore in SA. See more on this by visiting his website www.democracy4sale.org

Delfin backs away from bypass/link road funding

The draft commitment deed for the Gawler East development, whilst still a working document, tends to point to a possible about-face by Delfin Lend Lease in regard to who is going to fund the controversial connector/link road/bypass from Gawler East to Evanston Park. Much evidence exists to show a funadamental premise of the development was that DLL were to pay for this road. But the draft deed says otherwise, suggesting the Town of Gawler and State Govt would pay. This is further supported by a controversial spreadsheet document leaked in July to the residents of Evanston Park which shows the ‘responsibility’ for the road would be held by a combination of DLL, Town of Gawler, Barossa Council and DTEI (State Govt) but a footnote states it would “be paid for up front by Town of Gawler and DTEI with contribution sought later from all future development (developers?) which includes commercial and the racetrack”.  We can certainly derive from this that who has it on their balance sheet is a long way off being concluded, especially given the Town of Gawler is struggling under existing debt and the State Govt has a thousand other priorities. Perhaps Paul Koch in his Bunyip letter to editor 28th Oct is on the money when he says it looks like Delfin hadn’t’ done their homework well enough before bidding for the site.  In the mean-time, it seems unrealistic to believe a public company like Delfin would ever be drawn into sponsoring the costs (up front or otherwise) of any future extension of the link road over Potts and through to Tiver.  Why would they have it on their balance sheet? After all, it’s outside of their land precinct altogether. 

Could it be that it is all becoming uneconomic and too risky?  Could it be too that if Concordia is now becoming more likely to be given the green light ahead of Gawler East, a proper eastern bypass road located well away from existing and future residential land is making more and more sense? Lets hope so.

Gawler – The Monarto you have without having Monarto

By popular demand, the blogmaster has secured a copy of the July 22nd ABC 891 breakfast interview of Council’s planning director Michael Wohlstadt and shadow minister for transport David Ridgway. David Bevan and Matthew Abraham provided this forum for what has turned out to be by far the most incisive and complete commentary of the saga. They probe the  key issues pertaining to the Delfin DPA along with the 30 year plan for greater Adelaide in the north which will most certainly influence the outcome of the March 2010 election. Click here  to catch up on  ABC interview M Wohlstadt

Please note that visitors might have to wait or return later to hear this interview as it has become a favourite for the site and sometimes gets a bit overloaded.

Dont forget to leave your comments!

Cheers

Jow Bloggs

Proposed urban development around Gawler could force council merger

The burden of having to provide services for new suburbs such as Roseworthy and Concordia could sink the Gawler Council, which is already experiencing major financial duress.  The state govt. says it wants to foster development around existing infrastructure, but because of the way the boundaries are presently set, with four councils all sharing in the Gawler pie, at this stage only the Gawler East (Delfin) proposed development – if it ever happens- will produce any extra rate revenue for Gawler. Are the new  residents of Concordia and Roseworthy likely to want to travel to Nuriootpa/Tanunda or Freeling/Kapunda?  Hardly.  Gawler’s already gridlocked roads and general community infrastructure will become more overloaded and run down. Barossa Council and Light Council must be rubbing their hands with glee when they see the 30 year plans, as they know they will gain building approval and rate revenue whilst being able to slowly build the normally required community infrastructures, this likely to be buffered by Gawler and its ratepayers for many years.  Given the recent press coverage of the need for fewer and more cost efficient councils, perhaps a  pro-active move would be for us to push Gawler Council to seek merger suitors, or at least a major review of boundaries. On top of the financial merits of this, a merger with Barossa or Light, or both, would ensure the town retains the ‘country’ part of our treasured town and country heritage whilst  lessening the risk of being absorbed by the metropolitan and giant Playford Council.

Delfin’s road to definitely become a bypass

Just as we thought. The new draft plans for greater Adelaide and urban boundaries show new suburbs centred in Concordia  and Roseworthy.  The Concordia section has a ”north eastern bypass” from the Sturt Highway to Lyndoch Rd. It just happens to join up with the  mostly Delfin-funded “link road”  which is  destined to pass by the back fences of Evanston Park residents before it exits on to the Main North Rd at Tiver. If a future resident of Concordia works in the city or anywhere south of Gawler, which way is he/she going to go? Anti-directionally north onto the Sturt Highway, the Gawler bypass and around to the MN Road? Or directly south through Gawler East and onto what is clearly to be the south eastern bypass to MN Road?  The map below (click on) shows a continuous blue dashed line all the way between the Sturt Highway and Tiver Rd.  So much for the expected link road road traffic having been halved from the 20-25,000 vehicle movements a day indicated a couple of years ago. If the proponents of the current Delfin DPA thought the Evanston Park people were upset before, this latest confirmation that we are being shafted is sure to bring another rally of dismay and discontent.