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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-14 Daily Xml
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PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT FUND

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:42): My question is to the minister for Urban Development and Planning. Acknowledging the important role that state governments have in supporting and financing public infrastructure, will the minister update the chamber on the achievements of the Planning and Development Fund?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for his important question. As part of this government's focus on improving the lifestyle opportunities for South Australians, we have been active in supporting and financing public infrastructure. Of course, much of the media focus tends to be on the big ticket items such as expressways, ports and desalination plants. However, while this government has been on the front foot in developing strategies for prioritising those major infrastructure projects, we have also been quietly putting runs on the board at a community level.

It might surprise the chamber to learn that this state government has spent more than $34 million in the past five years to support local government projects. The Planning and Development Fund, a pool of money created by charging a levy on property developers who decline to include 12.5 per cent public space in their new developments, is helping local government to finance myriad projects through Open Space and Places for People grants.

From the smallest allocation of $7,500 to the Flinders Ranges council to several six-figure grants, these Open Space and Places for People grants have helped foster a culture of support for public infrastructure within local government. Salisbury council was able to fund its Town Square development with a $500,000 People for Places grant. Similarly, the City of Charles Sturt has received $750,000 from People for Places for work on Grange Square, and the Light regional council received three grants totalling $585,000 to assist with its Freeling Township project. Working together with adjoining councils, the government has also helped to finance larger projects such as the Coast Park and the River Torrens Linear Park—and one might also say the Tramway Park.

In the most recent round of funding, Charles Sturt council received $300,000 for the Coast Park extension to West Beach. This follows the recent opening of the underpass at Henley Beach South that links the River Torrens Linear Park with the Coast Park. The latest grant will provide the funding for the final critical link between the Bay and the Adelaide Hills by extending the existing Coast Park path from West Beach through the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park to Glenelg. This project is part of several grants provided to councils along the length of the foreshore and the River Torrens to gradually bring these linear park concepts from the drawing board to reality.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: We are going to complete the other parts of that first, because Tennyson is a very important part of the natural sandhills. I am certainly not going to promote bulldozing through the centre of those sandhills. If the opposition wants to do that, it is welcome to do so. What we are doing is completing the coast park. As I have said, $34 million has been spent over the course of this government and, as a result, we are completing all these gaps that have been left over the years in the coast park and the River Torrens Linear Park.

This month, I was also pleased to approve a grant of $235,000 to Marion council for stage 1 of the new tramway park that will use the tramline corridor from the city to Glenelg to create yet another linear park for pedestrians and cyclists. Other grants have helped to provide shelters and seating, barbeque facilities and public toilets to raise the standard of community facilities in towns and regions across the state.

While expressways, rail lines and ports provide the transport arteries for this state, it is community infrastructure that supplies its life blood. The importance of these community projects is demonstrated by the popularity amongst local councils for these Open Space and Places for People initiatives financed through the Planning and Development Fund.

Adelaide City Council has received nine open space grants worth nearly $2.5 million and a further $200,000 of Places for People funding. That is almost $2.65 million in community projects within the CBD alone—and, dare I say, the government has also spent a lot more money in the redevelopment of North Terrace, which is nearing completion. I think that, when they see the recent parts of that redevelopment that have been opened in front of Bonython Hall, people will really look forward to the completion of that work, which will, of course, correspond with the face lift of the old Mines building that is part of the University of South Australia. As I have said, that is almost $2.65 million in community projects within the CBD alone, not counting those other projects on North Terrace that I have mentioned.

More than $1 million of those grants to the Adelaide City Council helped to fund the Adelaide Parklands Trail, which is greatly increasing, through this fund, the bicycle links through the city. People can now ride a bicycle along the River Torrens Linea Park from the hills to the sea, and soon, with the completion of the section we have talked about here with the West Torrens council, people will be able to ride a bike all the way from the hills to Glenelg without crossing roads.

Similarly, the City of Onkaparinga in the south of Adelaide has not been short changed in terms of public infrastructure funded through the Open Space Grants Scheme: that council has received almost $1 million in grants for the Coast Park Moana Foreshore project. On a smaller scale, the Goyder regional council has received grants totalling $66,930 for its Eudunda Gardens project. Kangaroo Island has not missed out. The council there has received more than $30,000 worth of Places for People grants for the Kangaroo Island township project.

Each project might have a small price tag but, stage by stage, council by council, they add up to more than $34 million in funding since July 2002. Of that spending, $24.85 million has been through the Open Space Grants program and a further $9.3 million for Places for People grants—and that is just the state government's contribution. These grants generally require local councils to provide some of their own spending so that the overall value of these projects is greater than the sum of the state government's contribution.

And we are not finished yet. Applications are still to be approved in the next round of grants, which will provide further assistance to local councils to develop concepts and then follow through with construction for the sort of projects that make big cities and small townships liveable. These Open Space and Places for People grants and the projects they fund are further evidence that the Rann Labor government supports the South Australian community where it lives with quality public amenities and open space for recreation and the enjoyment of all.

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