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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-01 Daily Xml
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NEWTON ROAD/GRAVES STREET INTERSECTION

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:37): I rise to discuss the issue of road safety in the Morialta electorate, in particular the intersection of Graves Street and Newton Road in the suburb of Newton. This is an intersection that has traffic problems which I have discussed in this house on one other occasion already, but it is a very sincere problem, which is why I bring it to the attention of the house again. In particular, I draw the attention of the Minister for Road Safety this issue to, who I wrote to a couple of months ago, reminding him of commitments made by the former Labor member for Morialta and the work done by others previous to my arrival in this house.

To put this into context for members, the intersection of Graves Street and Newton Road is outside the front of the St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, which is a very significant institution in the Morialta community. It plays host to many of the festa processions and festivals that grace the calendar in the Morialta community, which bring to them many thousands of people from around Adelaide and, indeed, from around Australia.

It is also the site of the St Francis of Assisi school, and I pay particular tribute to its principal, Mr Paul Forde, and the parish priest of the St Francis of Assisi Catholic community, Father John Cooper. Father Cooper, along with the committee at St Francis of Assisi, wrote to the Minister for Road Safety with the support of the previous member and the Hon. Carmel Zollo, in 2009. They did so with a petition signed by over 700 constituents in the seat of Morialta—380 from the parish and 361 collected by the St Francis of Assisi Primary School.

The issue is that there are no traffic lights at this intersection and Father Cooper himself was nearly the victim of an unfortunate traffic incident. The intersection is dangerous. Many, many elderly members of the congregation who live nearby, walk to the church to worship each week, as well as many hundreds and thousands more who come to that intersection when there are festas on. The lack of traffic lights and road safety for people at that corner is of great concern, quite apart from the great inconvenience that it causes residents in Newton, when they are trying to deal with traffic problems.

What is more remarkable is that there is a pedestrian crossing 100 metres away that is inconveniently located for the elderly residents and congregants of the church, for many of the students walking to school and for many other people who use that area for their various needs. Further, there is another set of traffic lights about one kilometre down the road at the corner of Playford Road that used to service an old school site when it used to exist there, but of course it no longer does—it is an inconvenience.

There are two sets of traffic lights that are superfluous to needs, but there is one intersection where they are needed. This is relevant to the Minister for Road Safety, because the previous minister for road safety, who is now the minister for agriculture, wrote to the St Francis of Assisi Catholic community on 4 January this year stating:

I can advise that DTEI has commenced work on a draft Road Management Plan (RMP) for Newton Road and St Bernards Road. It is anticipated that the draft RMP will be available for public comment by the end of June 2010. The issues you have raised will be considered in this process.

On 3 March, in the midst of the election campaign, the former Labor member for Morialta wrote to every resident in Newton pointing out that she had seen a draft of the Road Management Plan, that the next stage was going to be public consultation and, as long as everybody was on board, this would be in place soon. I sought the Minister for Road Safety's commitment that that would take place. I asked him for an opportunity to view the RMP that was promised by the end of June and I am yet to hear back from his office, other than an acknowledgement of the receipt of my letter.

Now that we have reached 1 July and the end of June time line is up, I seek the opportunity to see the Road Management Plan and a commitment from the government that it will deliver on its election promise of traffic lights at this dangerous intersection, and I hope that the Minister for Road Safety will get back to me in the near future so that I can alleviate the concerns of the constituents in Newton and the people who use the facilities at St Francis of Assisi School and the Catholic church.

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