Kids pay the price for the selfishness of middle-class NIMBYs | David Penberthy

Adelaide’s NIMBY brigade comes in multiple forms, but its victims are often the same, writes David Penberthy.

The NIMBY brigade come in multiple forms but a common thread has emerged in terms of their combined impact on the broader community in South Australia.

The victims of their self-interest are often kids. Kids who are trying to do the very thing we all agree kids should be doing more of – riding their bikes, playing sport, getting away from technology and being active and taking risks.

In the past few years we have seen community football clubs hounded for daring to install lights or expand facilities to cater for the surge in demand from girls wanting to play our national game.

We’ve seen tiny bands of busy-bodies and worry-worts complain to their councils about kids building bike tracks on unused blocks of land.

We’ve heard complaints about the sound of basketballs being bounced either too late or too early at the local park.

We’ve seen millionaire beachside property owners complain that the installation of shade sails to stop kids being burnt to a crisp at the playground will interrupt their ocean views, or that bike tracks along the esplanade will lead to unbearable noise.

The latest apparent outrage is the attempt by the long-standing and popular Forestville Hockey Club to find a new home.

This is a uniquely important and intelligent proposal because it has the very welcome benefit of providing brand-new sporting facilities to a public school.

Under the plan, a new all-weather playing surface will be installed at Unley High. The students will have full access to the surface during school hours for PE, netball, hockey, touch football, any sport they like, all of which will be of great benefit during winter when the current grassed areas become muddy and waterlogged.

This plan was signed off by the former Liberal government when the then education minister John Gardner wrote to the club confirming Unley High strongly supported the idea.

Member for Unley David Pisoni. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Former Liberal education minister John Gardner. Picture: Matt Loxton

“I am supportive in principle of providing the club with a long-term occupancy arrangement over a portion of the site should the proposal proceed,” Mr Gardner wrote.

That was in December 2020 but now, with the Liberals in opposition, the Liberal Party appears to have done a complete about-face, in light of concerns from a small number of residents along the usual lines – parking, noise, access.

Unley MP David Pisoni, a Liberal, has given a speech about in Parliament and also written to constituents stating (questionably) that all of this has come as a surprise to the local community, even though the club has been working transparently for years to engage them at every step of the way.

The Liberal position was reversed with this line: “While I and the state Liberal Party have been supportive of Forestville Hockey Club and recognise their need to find a new, long-term location solution, there has been a total lack of consultation with local residents about this proposal.”

Translated, this means “Not in my backyard”. And given the paltry number of complainants relative to the actual nearby population, it’s a classic case of the squeaky-wheelers getting the oil.

Concept images/ plans for Forestville Hockey Club on Unley High School. Pictures: Forestville Hockey Club website.

It’s also a study in how some can become so hysterical and rumour-driven that they will end up becoming paranoid about problems that don’t exist.

There have been claims that the new synthetic pitch will include PFAS chemicals, prompting some locals to raise fears that the new complex might give them cancer.

These claims were being put so stridently that the club requested and was provided this written assurance from project engineer Mark Donegan from Polytan Australia: “Please note we do not add any PFAS into the turf. Older generation turf had PFAS in the process aid used in the extrusion process but this has been eliminated in our products.”

So what’s this all about then?

It’s about middle class selfishness.

One of the funniest lines in Pisoni’s parliamentary speech is that Unley has less green space than any other electorate in South Australia and is somehow a barren and neglected wasteland. I live in the area and aside from Heywood Park and Souter Park and the Soldiers Memorial Gardens and Unley Oval (the only SANFL ground open to the public) and North Unley Playground and Wayville Reserve and the Goody Saints ground – oh, and the entire bottom quarter of the city parklands – there’s not really much green space around here at all.

This is one of the most pampered parts of Adelaide. If people are worried about occasional traffic – or God forbid the sound of children playing sport at night – they really need a reality check as to what constitutes hardship.

But it’s the potentially lost benefit to Unley High that irks me the most about all this.

I am not an anti-private school person, but I am the proud product of a state school, the now-bulldozed Marion High.

We had a school adventure program which was notable for two things – excellent and enthusiastic teachers and a complete lack of equipment.

We had to borrow kayaks to go kayaking, and when we started a rock-climbing program, Scotch College very kindly loaned us their climbing wall so we can learn our skills. I remember the first time I set foot inside Scotch and it felt like I’d landed in Hogwarts.

State schools rarely enjoy any of the facilities that are regarded as standard at their private equivalents.

The reason private schools produce a proportionally higher number of players has nothing to do with innate middle class talent. They have better facilities, more and better coaches and teachers, and better diets on account of being rich.

The idea that some of the most affluent people in SA are telling a state school it should miss out on this great development, all because it might be marginally harder to park their BMW on a Saturday, is a small price to pay for the greater good.