Living Well, draft ready for consultation

 

 

The community consultation on the draft Living Well Plan.

 The survey can be accessed via the link below and I encourage you to share this with your networks.

 

https://yoursay.unley.sa.gov.au/draft-living-well-plan-consultation

 Council are seeking feedback via this survey and I can also receive via email mmudge@unley.sa.gov.au or phone 8372 5120 until 18 December 2020.

 

South Road upgrade; Black Forest may not get what it wants.

 

It was good news to hear that the state government had finally made a decision to upgrade the final sections of South Road. The bad news is that the inclusion of a tunnel for part of the distance dos not include Black Forest and Everard Park. This relatively short stretch is most likely to be a lowered roadway.  The access and egress to the roadway seems to be completely unavailable. So what does this mean for these suburbs?

• The tram bridge will still be able to be used by bikes and pedestrians
• The lowered roadway will provide some noise mitigation

BUT

• Students from Glandore could be isolated from  Black Forest Primary School
• There is unlikely to be access to and from South Rd at Cowper,  Dryden, Addison and Forrest Ave thus pushing even local traffic into East and Leah St
• There may be property acquisitions
• There will be enormous disruption during completion.

Tree cover may not be as bad as thought

 Please take a look at the  highlights of the latest national benchmark study undertaken by Greener Spaces, Better Places – the authors of the original ‘Where have the trees gone?‘ study in 2013 on tree canopy change across Australia.

The Report launched last night reveals Unley have turned a corner and had a 3% increase in green cover (it includes shrubs and trees). Their results are calculated from an i-tree study which uses 1000 sample points per Council area, providing a direct comparison between 2016 and 2020. While i-tree does not to the level of accuracy of the more recently introduced LiDAR, it is still very promising indication that our efforts are making a difference. It is also a great demonstration of the work the City of Unley has been doing, and we are recognised in the report as “best on ground” for the positive change compared to the other Councils in category 5 (urban/compact/low rainfall).

 

The Report is called “Where will all the trees be?” and a link to full report is here,

 The difference may well be that this study better calculates the canopy as it includes trees less than 3m in height.

 

 

 

 

What about the Eureka flag

 When I moved the motion in last month's Agenda  (that the flag be flown for 3 days in December) I assumed that it was a motion that everyone would support. I was surprised and a little taken aback when I heard tales of Chinese persecution, and trade unions. Interestingly, the press found this more newsworthy than the Climate Emergency debate and published comment a day or two later. It would be fair to say the Council has been ridiculed for its decision to not fly such an important symbol of democracy.

Why the Climate Emergency motion lost?

Last Monday Council debated a motion put forward by Cr Russo that Council declare a Climate Emergency followed by some measurable parameters to collect baseline data to reference future changes.

The vote lost 7-5.

After hearing 6 deputations in favour  of the motion  and no one against it as well as their being least another 60 people in the chamber and more waiting outside, the debate began. Jane (Cr Russo) started with a well thought out speech and the motion was then seconded by Cr Bonham. I the debated about the amount of and momentum of feedback and interest that we had all received from our community: this included dozens of emails, some phone calls and plenty of chats over coffee. Then those not in favour raised their arguments, these included:

• We're doing enough already
• There could be litigation
• We would need to spend more money
• That it was a conspiracy of the Greens

None referred to the passion of the deputees or the valid arguments that they raised. Some remained silent and said nothing. While Cr Dodd had an alternate motion to follow it still fell short of what really needs to happen.