LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ROAD CLOSURES—1934 ACT) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 10 November 2011.)

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (11:19): I rise today to speak against the member for Croydon's private member's bill which seeks to re-open Barton Road. This is a very foolish idea and one that is based on the member for Croydon's 23-year career argument of perceived class warfare between the western suburbs and North Adelaide, rather than what is considered to be world's best practice of road safety and traffic management in residential areas. Barton Road was closed in 1987 as part of a major realignment of roads and the creation of the northern ring route around the city in the 1980s. Fitzroy Terrace was widened, and access streets on its northern side were created for residents of Bowden and Brompton, with buffer mounds of trees to reduce the traffic impact. The bridge was built over the railway line and the level crossing at North Adelaide station closed. The Hawker Bridge over the railway line was demolished.

The closure of Barton Road was not, as has been suggested by the member for Croydon, a unilateral decision made by Adelaide City Council. At the time these road alignments, including the Barton Road closure, had the support of Hindmarsh and Prospect councils and the highways department. The consultation by the north-west ring route working party was extensive, and included displays of the proposal to close Barton Road (which was Mildred Road at the time). Many residents have chosen to reside in the north-western precinct of North Adelaide since this time, knowing that Barton Road was closed. It is difficult to see what justice will be accorded to them if the road is reopened after 24 years.

It is common knowledge that continuing pressure to open the road and the continued threat to North Adelaide residents over the issue arises from the obsession of the member for Croydon since he was elected in 1989, and his continual opposition to it, despite the agreement on its closure before he became an MP. The member for Croydon believes that the road needs to be reopened for quicker access from the western suburbs to Calvary Hospital, the Mary Potter Hospice, St Dominic's and St Laurence church, yet in the 170 times that the member for Croydon has mentioned Barton Terrace West, and in his 67 speeches in this house, he has failed to declare his personal interest, given his daughter attended St Dominic's.

The member for Croydon stated in his speech that 'One would not use Barton Road if one were a Bowdenite wanting to travel to the CBD or eastern suburbs,' and previously in The Advertiser in 1999 he said:

...this is not going to be a shortcut from the western suburbs to the city...no-one in their right mind would use it to get to the city.

Based on the 1990s traffic survey figures, the member for Croydon is expecting the road to be used by 2,500 vehicles per day. I believe the road could be used by even more, given the increase in Adelaide's population since then.

Estimations aside, there are not 2,500 vehicles visiting the above referred to institutions each day, so the member for Croydon must know that there will be a high proportion of vehicle traffic using the road as a shortcut through a residential area to get to the city. But will it actually be quicker? That is a matter for debate. We cannot give a definite answer because the member's own minister for transport has not requested his department to undertake a comprehensive traffic survey of the area and potential impacts, despite a campaign—or obsession—of more than 20 years and the report commissioned by the Adelaide City Council 12 years ago showing numerous reasons why not to reopen the road.

A PhD candidate at UniSA did a traffic simulation of the reopening of Barton Road from 8am until 9am on a weekday, and it showed considerable congestion along Barton Terrace West and the need to re-engineer several intersections. The member for Croydon states that he has surveyed his constituents and that they overwhelmingly want the road reopened. I understand the member now intends to survey the outer western suburban marginal Labor seats of Colton and even Port Adelaide on the issue. It is a disgraceful waste of taxpayer money to survey residents who live more than 10 kilometres away from the issue. He has not surveyed the people most affected in Ovingham and North Adelaide.

I have walked the streets of my electorate and surveyed those who would be directly affected by the reopening of the road, including those in Ovingham and North Adelaide. I discovered that more than three to one want it to remain closed, including many Ovingham residents who recognise the potential traffic concerns the reopening could raise, especially without current traffic surveys and related data modelling.

We doorknocked over 602 homes. For those who were not home, we left a note asking whether they wanted the road reopened and giving our contact details. Those who did not respond received a follow-up contact. Of the residents who responded, 79 percent would like Barton Terrace to remain open only to buses and only 21 percent would like reopened.

I have completed a traffic survey of the number of vehicles that illegally duck through Barton Terrace. A total of 55 vehicles illegally used the road over a 10-hour period, although the member for Croydon's estimate was over 600 vehicles per day. Another former Labor attorney-general, Chris Sumner, recently wrote to The Advertiser, stating:

There has been no traffic survey, no assessment of the impact on the residents of North Adelaide nor whether traffic installation, such as lights, will be needed. There will also be an adverse impact on Bowden, Brompton and Hawker Street residents.

Adelaide City Council and Charles Sturt Council are unanimous in their lack of support for this bill. Charles Sturt's CEO, Mark Withers, states that the legislation does not allow enough time for consultation, traffic analysis or to assess both the technical infrastructure issues and cost. In a recent letter, the CEO made reference to the defeated motion of councillor Agius in December 2010 seeking to have the road reopened. He lost 12:4.

Charles Sturt Council further opposes any reopening on the grounds that there was no complete traffic survey on which to base a position, and that, in fact, the amenity of the residents of Bowden and Brompton in the electorate of Croydon might be adversely affected by reopening. The Adelaide City Council does not support the reopening.

In August this year, the council affirmed its support for continued closure of Barton Terrace West-War Memorial Drive as a 'bus only' lane. In 2002 traffic surveys undertaken in North Adelaide demonstrated that the control has proven effective in increasing the levels of road safety and residential amenity on North Adelaide streets. In 1986, before the road's closure, there were 51 vehicle accidents on Barton Terrace, with 11 people injured, several requiring hospital admission.

In 2009 only one accident was recorded with no injury. Hill Street went from seven in 1986 to one in 2009; Mills Terrace, nine accidents in 1986 to one in 2009. With such vulnerable populations—elderly residents at the Helping Hand Aged Care centre, children at St Dominic's, the patients and visitors to Calvary Hospital and the families parking to access the aquatic centre—the potential for tragedy is very real with such an increase in traffic.

According to the 1999 report commissioned by the Adelaide City Council, the findings of consultants Murray F. Young & Associates were almost singularly negative about the impacts of the potential reopening of the link. These included:

Significant increases in traffic volumes on Barton Terrace and Mills Terrace/Hill Street, and possible increases in speed on Barton Terrace;

Increased traffic and noise on residential streets resulting in reduced residential amenity; and

Possible requirements to install traffic control in Barton Terrace and Mills Terrace/Hill Street (and to upgrade the pavement and lighting in these streets), increased traffic using Hawker Street, Bowden and the potential for increased accidents.

The report goes on to state that North Adelaide roads would increase significantly with probable increases of 52 per cent on Barton Terrace West between Jeffcott Street and Mills Terrace, an 18 per cent increase on Barton Terrace West east off Jeffcott and a 100 per cent increase on Mills Terrace and Hill Street.

If the reasoning behind the legislation was not enough for this chamber to roundly throw it out, the legislation itself is so poorly constructed—no doubt due to the harried and reckless brief of a man obsessed—that the Local Government Association and many local councils are scrambling to understand its implications in a time frame that almost reeks of bullying.

If this bill were to pass, Charles Sturt Council (the target of this legislation) has already flagged that it would not request it to be opened without a full traffic survey. Six months is not enough to complete a full survey; and, if Charles Sturt does not give an answer, the default is that the road will be reopened, at the expense of an estimated $1 million to be borne by the Adelaide City Council.

It astounds me that the member for Croydon is willing to have parliamentary counsel waste thousands of taxpayers' dollars drafting legislation to open a council road that was closed to return a residential street to the amenity it deserves—all this in an effort to ensure the certain detriment of the safety of school children, the elderly and the ill, as well as to the amenity of North Adelaide and Ovingham residents, all for his own self-interest and obsession.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.