Adelaide City Council has sided with the state government, reversing its rejection of the Riverbank arena

Adelaide City Council has reversed its decision of last month and now it supports the state government’s planned Riverbank arena, slap-bang on the parklands. But there’s a catch.

Adelaide City Council has sided with the state government and backflipped on opposition to a proposed $662m entertainment arena in the parklands.

But it will push for no overall loss from parklands, in a compromise with the state.

The vote of six councillors to five on Tuesday night was an important hurdle for the project which has been opposed by some because of reclamation of Adelaide parklands immediately downstream of the Morphett St Bridge.

Councillor Jessy Khera moved the motion to reverse the October council decision while also including the recommendation of “no net loss” of parklands.

“The outcome from that (previous) meeting was sub-optimal,’’ he said.

The 15,000 seat arena, to be the home of court sports, entertainment and conventions, is the cornerstone of the Liberal Party’s re-election bid in March 2022, with the Labor Party pledging it will not go ahead with the plan and instead spend $100m on country health.

This week the state government offered a carrot to the council of $400,000 in state funds for its Reignite Adelaide campaign to attract people back to the CBD after Covid-19 disruption.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor rejected any suggestion that the funding would affect the decision.

Councillor Phillip Martin told the meeting the decision was a “flip flop” and the council would be seen as “dysfunctional” over the issue.

Renders of Adelaide’s planned arena announced for Riverbank. A re-elected Marshall Liberal Government will build a new 15,000-person multipurpose indoor arena, in the Adelaide Riverbank precinct. Picture: Supplied

Councillor Alex Hyde said the October motion, where council originally rejected support for the plan, was poorly worded.

“The wording was very poorly drafted. What we want is discussion about no net loss of Parklands,” he said.

Mr Hyde last night withdrew a previous conflict of interest causing him to pull out of the original vote on the issue in October, on the basis that he was running for Liberal preselection.

He voted in support of the arena last night.

Adelaide Park Lands Association president Shane Sody condemned the decision immediately after the vote and cast doubt on the plan for no net loss of public land.

“The city council has voted to sacrifice hundreds of trees and hectares of open green public parklands,’’ he said.

At 8:30pm and 9:28pm Ms Verschoor rejected appeals from councillors to bring the debate on for the sake of ratepayers watching the meeting’s livestream, and it remained the last item on the agenda with the debate beginning at 10:20pm, almost five hours after the meeting began.

In a final vote at 11pm, councillors approved the “no net loss of parklands” position, which would substitute other land for open space lost to the arena.