Inside the West Torrens Council meeting on the Adelaide Crows plan for Thebarton Oval

Things got heated during the West Torrens Council special meeting to discuss Adelaide’s plan to make Thebarton Oval its new home. We take you inside the meeting.

Despite the warnings to not speak out, as the end of the West Torrens Council special meeting to discuss Adelaide’s plan to make Thebarton Oval its home approached, one member of the public couldn’t help herself.

“It’s like an episode of Utopia,” she joked.

What prompted her reference to the satire show about a Federal Government department was yet another discussion about postcards – or flyers – containing information on how the community could have their say on the Crows planned development of Thebarton Oval and the surrounding area.

Vision of the Adelaide Football Club’s proposed new training, administration and community precinct at Thebarton Oval. Picture: City Collective

The postcards, and the lack of letterboxes they apparently ended up inhabiting, basically dominated the special meeting on Thursday night.

“On behalf of the City of West Torrens I humbly apologise if you have not received a postcard,” Mayor Michael Coxon said.

The council said an “external provider” was to blame for the lack of delivery, and it would seek to find out why this had occurred.

Those in the public gallery didn’t have all that much sympathy, with many crying out in opposition.

That prompted Mr Coxon to threaten that if the vocal opposition continued, then members of the public would be asked to leave.

While they settled down in the council chambers, after the meeting, there were other issues as well.

The future of 10 trees in Kings Reserve, where the Crows’ proposed second oval is slated for, is still up in the air.

The area where the 10 trees are in Kings Reserve which threatens to impact the Crows’ plans for Thebarton Oval. City of West Torrens

Dr Emma Dawes, a member of the 5031 Community Facilities and Greenspaces Action Group, said residents would still be waiting to hear from the State Government, who “have made commitments to us that their funding will be contingent on saving trees that on the current picture are slated to be gone”.

“It is a nine hectare site, we are asking the Crows to leave us three hectares and we are asking them to not decimate the small amount of tree canopy that we have in the western suburbs,” she said.

“You could flip the headlines this week and instead of saying the Crows project is in danger because of 10 trees you could say council’s tree canopy is in danger because of 4m of football oval.

Vision of the Adelaide Football Club’s proposed new training, administration and community precinct at Thebarton Oval. Picture: City Collective

“This is also a temporary solution for the Crows, if they take the trees out this is permanent.

“If temporarily they accept something that is 4m smaller or they can push it over a little bit, long term they still get the outcome they want and we get the outcome we want. It’s a win, win solution.”

Dr Dawes also said there were still “major concerns” about clauses that were in the documents, including the increased investment of $13 million by the council and rate and rent rebates.

Ultimately the meeting resulted in the Crows masterplan for the Thebarton Oval being sent out for public consultation, and the possibility of the State Planning Commission becoming the “relevant authority” for the project.

But the council have some convincing to do.

They’ll be hoping there won’t be any issues with the next mail out of postcards in the area.

Originally published as Inside the West Torrens Council meeting on the Adelaide Crows plan for Thebarton Oval