Lord Mayoral candidate Mark Hamilton puts CBD traffic at top of agenda

A TRAFFIC overhaul to reduce CBD congestion is the campaign centrepiece of the first challenger for Adelaide’s top job of lord mayor.

Adelaide lawyer and 2018 mayoral candidate Mark Hamilton at Montefiore Hill overlooking Adelaide. Picture: Mike Burton

A TRAFFIC overhaul to reduce CBD congestion is the campaign centrepiece of the first challenger for Adelaide’s top job of lord mayor.

Adelaide lawyer Mark Hamilton, who is launching his second tilt for city hall, says business is being badly affected by traffic congestion.

“Adelaide used to be known as the 20-minute city because you could get from anywhere to anywhere in the metropolitan area in that time,” Mr Hamilton told the Sunday Mail.

“The fact that the city is becoming increasingly less accessible is causing businesses to move out.

“There is actually a crisis in terms of business leaving the city, which is adversely affecting our commercial ratepayers.”

Mr Hamilton said the traffic gridlock was ludicrous when the number of people working and visiting the city had reduced over the past 15 years.

Initiatives to reduce congestion include:

REINSTATING right-hand turns along King William St.

PERMITTING cars to drive on tram tracks.

PERMITTING cars to drive in bus lanes outside peak-hour.

CHANGES to light sequences to promote traffic flow.

Other priorities include reduc­ing the number of commercial vacancies and restoring the council’s role in planning.

Mr Hamilton — who was a losing candidate to Lord Mayor Martin Haese in the mayoral election of 2014 and has had two stints on the council — said former lord mayors “would be rolling in their graves” if they knew how disempowered the council had become.

“The last state government virtually became the government of the city with the city council acting as some sort of junior partner on some projects,” he said.

“I’m passionate about the city of Adelaide and have a long-term involvement as a resident and a business owner.

“It is time for Adelaide to be the city it should be rather than be some pale imitation of some other second-rate modern city.”

Mr Hamilton, owner of CBD-firm Grope Hamilton Lawyers, also plans to campaign to increase the influence of the city council’s role in major planning projects.

He has called for three elected members to be restored to the council assessment panel — up from one under changes made in the previous Labor state government’s planning reforms — and lifting the $10 million cap that relinquishes its power as the planning authority.

His call comes more than a week after Adelaide City Council launched a bid to increase the cap to $40 million following last month’s change of government.

Mr Hamilton, a son-in-law of former lord mayor John Roche, served as a councillor from 1982 and deputy lord mayor for a term before “retiring” in 1993, only to make a comeback for a term in 2010.

Lord Mayor Martin Haese has confirmed he will launch his re-election campaign for the November local government elections soon.

“I am enthusiastically seeking a second term as lord mayor to continue and complete much of the good work done for the community over the last four years,” he said. “The future of our city is at stake.”

Deputy Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor, a former chief executive of the Adelaide Festival, said she was yet to decide if she would run again for the council.