Adelaide still a ghost town after Premier’s work-from-home plea
Just weeks after the Premier told workers to flee the CBD to avoid the Omicron influx, the city’s council is conjuring its own scheme to lure them back.
City
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Office workers will be urged to get back to the Adelaide CBD as businesses increasingly suffer from a loss of trade.
Premier Steven Marshall is expecting to receive official advice “in coming days” on when thousands of public servants and private sector employees should return to the city.
“Hopefully, by the end of the month, we can start that return to work,” Mr Marshall said.
Mr Marshall last month urged city workers, including state government employees, to work from home for several weeks in a bid to contain the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
Foot traffic across the city since has dropped significantly with retailers, small businesses, restaurants, cafes and bars the hardest hit.
Adelaide City Council is devising strategies to encourage more people to spend time in the city as preliminary data shows spending within the CBD has plummeted.
Worst hit areas have been the East End and Rundle Mall, where sensors have recorded falls of pedestrians of up to 50 per cent in the past six weeks.
Data provided in a 45-page report showed spending within the Adelaide CBD totalled $3.65bn between December 2020 and November 2021.
Of this, 94 per cent was spent by people who did not live within the council area, such as workers who commuted daily from the suburbs.
The city council’s chief executive, Clare Mockler, said it was vital people realised the CBD remained a safe environment, as evidenced by the absence of any Covid clusters from various New Year’s Eve celebrations organised by the council.
These included a capacity crowd for a scaled-down, ticketed fireworks event attended by 5000 people at Rymill Park.
“It’s a difficult time for the city but there’s still so much to see and do. We’re ensuring it is a safe place to be and we remain very positive about 2022,” Ms Mockler said.
Elected members held a special meeting on Monday night to discuss a call by North Adelaide councillor Phillip Martin for urgent measures to get people back into the city, while providing financial support for struggling businesses.
They included rates relief packages, counselling services, putting stickers over pedestrian crossings and increased cleaning of public areas.
“People are afraid of the city of Adelaide,” he said. “The ghost town is having an impact on the functioning of business.”
Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said it was “no time to talk down the city and be negative”.
“I’ll continue to focus on what we can do to get people returning to the city and supporting our businesses,” she said.
“We’ve previously invested more than $12 million in city recovery and will continue to do everything we can to support our traders every step of the way.
“Administration has provided a great deal of data for us to analyse to ensure we spends funds wisely to deliver the greatest impact.”
Councillors will hold another special meeting on Friday to finalise the initiatives.
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