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Open letter to our community: A summary of our Public Forum on 4 November 2024

Published 14th November 2024

14 November 2024

To our community,

Thank you to those who attended our public forum in Two Wells on 4 November 2024.

It was great to see open and honest conversations taking place between Council members and the community in a much less formal manner. We are continuing to look for ways to increase community members’ participation and feel this is a step in the right direction.

We heard valuable feedback and received great questions on a number of topics. Some of the topics discussed included:

— The future of public forums
We revoked our Community Engagement Policy – Public Forums at our 28 October 2024 meeting to allow flexibility in the structure to ensure public forums benefit. As part of this resolution, we will now ensure details are more easily available for our information and briefing sessions to promote community attendance, and use other community engagement methods to promote greater two-way communication with our community.

— Council meetings: open forums and live streams
The format of our council meetings was discussed, specifically open forums and the quality of live streams. The ‘public open forum’ at council meetings was removed from our Code of Practice – Meeting Procedures back in 2022.
Deputations continue to be an option for members of the community to address Council in a more transparent and accountable manner. We acknowledge that our live streams have room for improvement in terms of audio quality and displaying presentations. Unfortunately the technology required to do so comes with a cost, and there are currently no plans or budget to invest in these aspects.

— Dublin protest statues
We are committed to working with relevant stakeholders to investigate, engage and prepare a proposal for the future for the Dublin Protest Statues and this is recognised in our near-completed Strategic Plan 2025–2028. We acknowledge the custodianship of the statues by community members. A working group has been formed that includes Council staff, and Integrated Waste Services (IWS) (who own one statue). The group is looking at what needs to happen to rehome the statues, including restoration, location, visitor safety, grant options, and who will have long-term responsibility for them. Consultation with Dublin and our coastal communities will also form part of this work.

— Fixed charge rates
The significant community feedback through our 2024/2025 budget consultation generated healthy discussion and Council Members, together with the CEO, are keen to start discussions around the rating process, and what options can be considered for 2025/2026, before Christmas.

— Heavy vehicle bypasses
Council staff are engaging with Department for Infrastructure and Transport on heavy vehicle bypasses for the Two Wells Township. Most recently, we provided input into the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass planning study, the Adelaide Northern Inner and Outer Suburbs study and the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan that included emphasis on township bypasses required for Two Wells and Mallala.

— Naming of the coast
Our coast is not only an extremely important environmental asset for plants, animals and environmental conservation; it is also an area of importance for our community and a significant visitor attraction. Suggestions have been made to promote this area as the ‘Shorebird Coast’. We have committed to investigate promotional options over the next 4 years, noting that this would require working with key community and business stakeholders alongside state-level tourism bodies and National Parks and Wildlife.

— Drainage in Chapman Street, Two Wells
Drainage issues in Chapman Street, Two Wells, were brought to our attention. There was a budget allocation in the 2024/2025 draft budget to undertake works that were deferred during this year’s budget discussions. This project allocation will be placed back on the draft budget for 2025/2026. We are also actively looking for grant funding to deliver this project to reduce the impact on ratepayers.

— Promoting and advocating for aged care facilities
Aged care facilities (including independent living units) are something we recognise are underrepresented in our region. We will be committing over the next 4 years to encourage increased housing choices in our region including not only aged care — but also small lot and specialised disability. Providing common sewer removes a key barrier to diverse housing, including aged care, in easy walking distance to the main street.

— Road infrastructure
Our Transport Infrastructure and Asset Management Plan outlines our road service levels, and Council Members will be provided information on road service levels throughout the upcoming Infrastructure and Asset Management plan review. This will also include a review of our road matrix.
Currently, our top 5 road priorities are:
1.Parham Esplanade
2.Paddy Bridge Road
3.Thompson Beach Esplanade
4.Wasleys Road (Cheek Road to Boundary Road)
5.Wild Horse Plains Road (9 Daniels Road to Port Wakefield Road)

— Waste management, including organic waste in coastal communities
It is important that we continue to improve our waste management practices and the Legatus Group Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy and Action Plan 2021–2026 (The Plan) provides priorities and pathways to achieve best practice. The Plan is assisting to influence and inform further projects to be undertaken. Further information will be provided to Council Members on the outcome of the KESAB report and the waste management options outlined within.

— Bubner Road speed limit
Concerns were raised about the speed limit of Bubner Road. The Department of Infrastructure and Transport is responsible for approving speed limits on all roads and road-related areas in South Australia. Bubner Road is not within a built-up area and therefore the default rural speed limit is 100 km/h.

— Cemetery expansions
There are no current plans to expand our cemeteries, with our recent Cemetery Discussion Paper noting that our current cemetery capacity is sufficient.

— Derelict vehicles
Concerns were raised around derelict vehicles in our region. We were unaware of any complaints regarding Windmill Road, only complaints in relation to build up of materials. Complaints in relation to vehicles on East Terrace at Parham have been investigated by Council staff. Where the owner of vehicles are known, authorised officers are unlikely to declare the vehicles as abandoned under the Local Government Act 1999. The Motor Vehicles Act 1959 makes it an offence to leave an unregistered vehicle on a public road and only SAPOL can take action under this legislation.

We also heard that our community want road names in new developments to be more local, signage around bat safety in Parham, Dublin and Mallala, and wayfinding signs updated. Our Signage and Wayfinding Strategy was adopted in October 2023 and signs will be renewed where budget permits. The frequency of dog waste bag refills was questioned. These are inspected at least once a week, however we can replace them earlier if we are notified that they are empty.

As always, a report will be tabled at the next Council meeting on Monday 25 November 2024 (5:30pm at the Mallala Chamber) summarising the discussions had at our public forum.

A reminder that there are a few ways you can contact us to request a service or report an issue:

Sincerely,

Your Council Members

councilmembers@apc.sa.gov.au