Kara Jung: The Adelaide City Council’s endless stuff-ups are costing us a fortune

Stuff-ups by the Adelaide City Council are costing the ratepayers dearly as our fair city suffers from cost cutting, writes Kara Jung

Something is rotten in the City of Adelaide. There’s a fire sale of assets like the city beach volleyball land and other buildings. There’s complaints about dirty streets, especially our grand King William Street thoroughfare, and whispers of graffiti lingering far longer than usual on CBD walls.

Our city council is broke and in a time where every dollar counts, where staff and elected members, more than ever, should be held to account we instead have another $200,000 of extra spending to a monumental stuff-up.

Yep, the brand new inclusive, disability-friendly $1.27m playground fails to meet basic disability standards.

And yep, it will require $200,000 of public money to fix it – although who knows if that figure will blowout too?

It is beyond disgraceful.

This water feature at the Quentin Kenihan Playground in Rymill Park is a significant danger for children with vision impairment. Picture Sarah Reed

At the very least it’s gross incompetence, made all the more unacceptable by the fact that it’s our money. The people’s money. The money for businesses already hit so hard by the work-from-home phenomenon in the midst of a global pandemic. And the residents who pay for services that, right now, are debatably not up to scratch.

The fact that no heads have yet rolled is appalling. Councillors continue to bicker and yell as the public’s hard-earned dollars, paid in rates to build a better city, are instead spent on fixing stuff-up after monumental stuff-up.

Disability groups have been raising concerns about the Quentin Kenihan Inclusive Playspace at Rymill Park since it was officially opened by Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor in December.

The playground, in memory of such a staunch advocate for inclusivity, has failed to meet basic standards. Some paths are not fit for purpose and too narrow for kids’ wheelchairs. Bin openings are too high for children to reach from wheelchairs.

This example of poor planning and spending blowouts is not new.

Anyone remember the $7.85m price tag to repave Gawler Place? And the $10m blowout to rip some of them up and lay stormwater pipes before it was even finished?

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said at the time the additional spend was “worth it”. Perhaps a better level of professional planning pre-paving would have avoided a $10m spend post-paving?

For the ratepayer, their city is now in about $100m debt and facing a huge challenge as services and amenities suffer.

The blame for the staggering debt has of course been placed firmly on COVID-19. And yes, it is a contributor.

But think of all the money wasted in the past few years.

The council laid pavers on Hindley Street in 2014 that were too slippery when wet to drive on so they had to be ripped up. Let’s say that again – the Adelaide City Council chose pavers for a road that were too slippery to drive on.

A team comprising project engineers and officials from the council, university, and Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure were tasked to investigate the mistake. But surely there’s an Australian standard for road pavers. Surely.

And surely that should have been thought of before the project started?

Pavers had to be ripped up in Rundle Mall less than a year after its $30m facelift too. You know the facelift where they ripped out all the established trees and everyone kinds went “blah” when the new Mall was unveiled?

Swings at the Quentin Kenihan playground for disabled children at Rymill Park. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The paving was completed, but four sections of pavers were removed – in stretches between five and 15m long – to install electrical cabling to power the Mall’s new lights. Because they changed their minds on the type of lighting at the tail end of the project.

The $28m upgraded Victoria Square plaza found “skid resistance” problems for cars on their pavers too. Oops.

And now a $200k bill to fix a brand new playground.

Enough is enough. The council owes its ratepayers a better service. And our elected members owe the residents and business owners of the Adelaide CBD more accountability. Because this council is now broke.

And if children are not even able to play on a brand new playground designed specifically for them then something is not OK in our fair city.