Council chooses not to listen to community sentiment

A turn out of almost a hundred people, packed out the gallery at the Town of Walkerville January council meeting to voice strong opposition to the proposal to remove the community land status of the Walkerville YMCA site. While the result was disappointing with a 5 to 3 vote in favour of revoking the community land status, the strong show of support left a clear message that the community still wants year round recreation facilities in Walkerville, despite some councillors focusing only on financial outcomes from council owned assets, that were originally built from community fundraising and significant volunteer effort. Many supporters have asked what can they do to help and we are suggesting the following:

1. Write to the Minister for Planning Stephan Knoll to express your concerns about the Town Of Walkerville’s Community Land Management Plan process and how it doesn’t reflect community sentiment for retaining the Community Land status. Include in your letter that the consultation process fails to indicate the future use for the site as required under the Local Government Act, that the council administration have mis-represented feedback in the consultation process which included an online petition of 4,000 signatures, 500 in hard copy and over 80 written submissions all in favour of retaining the land status, to say than less than 1% of residents responded and therefore the land status should be revoked. Council also initially advertised a consultation process of less than the required 21 days and changed the content of plan documents during the process creating uncertainty. Request that the Minister reject approval of the change of land status under his powers in the Local Government Act. The Minister can be contacted at MinisterKnoll@sa.gov.au

2. Write to the local MP for Adelaide, Rachel Sanderson asking for her support to retain community recreation facilities in her electorate and highlighting the issues with the land management consultation process. Explain that affordable and inclusive programs at the Walkerville YMCA are not readily available elsewhere in the area and that council are not listening to the community by placing financial priorities ahead of community wellbeing and that we need her active support to retain facilities and programs. Rachel can be contacted at adelaide@parliament.sa.gov.au

3. Come and use our programs at Walkerville & Kensington, do a group fitness session or a workout, enrol your family in gymnastics, tumbling or dance, play some stadium sport or have a game of squash/raquetball, plan an active birthday party celebration and bring the kids to vacation care or school holiday clinics and invite a friend. By participating in our programs, not only will you get the benefits of physical activity and connect with others, but you will show the demand for programs to politicians and sustain our community services.

4. Provide your time, talent or treasure to sustain our efforts, attend a future working bee, volunteer some time and skills in our lobbying efforts and raise community awareness of the importance of year round recreation facilities that are both inclusive and affordable for all of our community.