Wattle street changes on the way! 15/12/2014
A cyclist will be able to fit through

Cycling safety and utility

It was all so innocent. I made a commitment in my election flyer to improve pedestrian and cycling safety. I knocked on every door once and ask those at home what issues they had for local government. Some comments included......  "I carted my bike down to the dump after being hit" "Cycling isn't safe in Unley."  and many more including "our cycle paths are a joke, you have to stop and start" "Riding down Unley Road is safer and quicker!" and so the comments came. I received emails and photos of a cycle accident aftermath in Unley! 

Charles Street Unley cyclist and a slow moving car!

Cyclist is taken away by ambulance with broken bones and injuries

As a result, my first notice of motion straight after the election aimed to change this. It was passed UNANIMOUSLY by the whole council.

                                             CYCLING ROUTE AUDIT

“That Council carries out an audit of Unley’s cycling transport routes considering both safety and utility as a transport corridor. The audit should include considering priority when cycling transport routes cross garage entrances or dead end streets.”

Background:

Unley is within the ideal 10 km cycling range where cycling into the city should be faster than all alternative modes of transport into the CBD. Yet only 2% of trips into Adelaide CBD are by bicycle compared to 13% in Melbourne in 2011.

We have a long term plan which removes cycle paths from Unley Road yet our alternative Porter/Rugby Street route is slower than cycling on Unley Road and has a number of unsafe points for cyclists.

Our developing cycle transport routes are encouraging more cyclists. The latest in connecting Charles Pathway across Unley Road up to Porter/Rugby Street route has encouraged access to Unley Primary and into the Eastern part of Adelaide CBD as well as King William Road from Parkside. Yet a single driveway has priority and a dead end street that is only 10 metres past the bike route also completely stops each side of the street!

A single car garage ends a cycle path.
Imagine if every driveway onto a roadway
 stopped the road with a give way sign!

Dead end street with just three car parks
stops the bikeway

Wattle Street Fullarton in Unley
There are six of these forcing a cyclist into the path of cars travelling behind.

Looking back at the cycle crash in Unley
compare our mother and daughter with the Melbourne father and son.
Cars travelling at 10 KPH on a lane have right of way.

A Melbourne cycle way
The cars  give way on serious minor roads

Conclusion:  We should be able to remove over 10% of cars off Adelaide roads by motorists using their bicycles.  Adelaide is drier and  flatter  than Melbourne! If we make our cycle paths safe and enable 25 KPH cycling speeds, we will.
I hope at our next meeting we will set up an Unley Cycling Audit Committee made of of real cyclists.

Our routes are

Unley Formal cycle transport corridors

 Council’s Pedestrian and Cyclist Plan identifies the following as significant cycling routes that are maintained by Council:

1. Mike Turter Bikeway (predominantly runs along tram corridor)

2. Adelaide – Marino Rocks Greenway (predominantly runs along the train corridor)

3. Rugby Street / Porter Street Bike Route

4. Glen Osmond Creek bike route (Through Culvert and Charles Unley)

5. Young Street bike route

6. Wattle Street, Park Street and Mitchell Street bike route

7. Weller Street, Wood Street and Victoria Avenue bike route

8. Duthy Street bike lanes

9. East Avenue bike lanes

10. Leader Street bike lanes

Dear Friends and Owners of Unley,

Thank you for your vote of confidence in the election. Together we have achieved so much and yet there is more to do.  I hope following the election we will continue to do so. It is a privilege to provide representation and support when it is needed.
 The election results from the web page for Unley are,

  UNLEY

          Election of Mayor

                   Result

                   CLYNE, Lachlan                                                                            Elected Unopposed

          Election of 2 Councillors for Clarence Park Ward

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   BOISVERT, Jennie                                                                        Elected Unopposed

                   PALMER, Don                                                                              Elected Unopposed

          Election of 2 Councillors for Fullarton Ward

          Formal Votes  1373       Quota    458

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   KURTZE, Peter                                      142

                   HUGHES, Peter                                     387                                   Elected 1

                   LAPIDGE, Anthony                                348                                   Elected 2

                   CENTRELLA, Dario                                261

                   FENDER, Megan                                   235

          Election of 2 Councillors for Goodwood Ward

          Formal Votes  1069       Quota    357

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   SMOLUCHA, Luke                                  355                                   Elected 2

                   SCHNELL, Bob                                      465                                   Elected 1

                   HOLLAND, Ben                                     136

                   JONES, Tom                                        113

          Election of 2 Councillors for Parkside Ward

          Formal Votes  1086       Quota    363

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   HOLLAND, Bruce                                   197

                   PUDNEY, Ben                                       106

                   KOUMI, John                                       224                                   Elected 2

                   GOODWIN-SMITH, Ian                           184

                   HUDSON, Mike                                     375                                   Elected 1

          Election of 2 Councillors for Unley Park Ward

          Formal Votes  1377       Quota    460

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   PUDWELL, Jeff                                     151

                   SANGSTER, Rob                                   434

                   LYNCH, Imelda                                     257

                   BLEBY, Elizabeth                                   261

                   RABBITT, Michael                                  274

           

Election of 2 Councillors for Unley Ward

          Formal Votes  1182       Quota    395

                   Candidate                       First Preferences Votes                        Result

                   SALAMAN, Rufus                                   283                                   Elected 2

                   NG, David                                           236

                   WIECZOREK, Teresa                              49

                   HEWITSON, Michael                              614                                   Elected 1

Thank you.
                                            Michael Hewitson                        Nov 2014

Candidate’s Statement for election to represent Unley Ward              Michael Hewitson AM 

WHAT I STAND FOR:

Integrity: I am not for sale, for money or votes.

Independent:  I am not a developer, and I do not work for one.

Honesty: Public consultations with real choice and accurate information.

Listening: After consulting I listen and support the wishes of our community.

Results: others now seek to help; great staff support; Things now happen: Water in our next drought; a green cool city with sunlight for all; cycle and pedestrian paths and crossings; well-maintained parks; planning rules with heritage; good library; lower rates, better footpaths….….

Newsletters: My newsletters are checked and reliable and keep you informed.

Why am I running again to minimise rates with good services new ideas and sound management?

                With your support we have made a difference …. I thank you for the past opportunities …. But now we have more to do… We can do better…

RESULTS: 

Unlimited money means unlimited waste……rather than the provision of focussed quality services our community seeks. With a set income from a fair rate rise, Councillors would have to choose what is worthwhile and what has to be cut to achieve this. What we do will matter and the quality of service rises. We become focussed.

RATES:  would be about 8% higher if I had not been on council. (See table below) If two others had not been supporting setting a target rate first, our rates would have been 16% higher! Yes Unley Council has the lowest expenditure rise of all councils across Metro Adelaide but we can do better! Our rates over the past ten years have risen 16.2% above wages during a wage boom!

PLANNING RULES:         

As PRESIDING OFFICER of our CITY STRATEGY AND POLICY COMMITTEE, we have won rules that enable a GREEN, COOL, LIGHT city that maintains its heritage with planned development. I have fought for rules that ensure sunlight for all, rules that maintain our street trees and green parks. All new medium and high density buildings must be below a 30 degree shadow.

PEDESTRIAN/CYCLE WAYS:        Against stiff opposition we developed our first and only across Unley path along Charles Walk with lights across Unley Road that line up with the walk all the way up Windsor Street. It is heavily used with 2,000 hits for the lights per week. If elected I will pursue its extension across King William Road to the Glenelg-Adelaide Cycle path and up to Ridge Park near Glen Osmond.

We have pedestrian refuges often where they are needed by pedestrians.

WATER:   I initiated the research to plan for an Unley independent of mains and Murray water. We now have recycled water for our parks, gardens and ovals which went brown in the drought…No more!  We save water, prevent phosphate-rich run off to the ocean, we save money as the water costs us less than half of mains, and when our reservoirs run dry we can continue to water. If re-elected I will seek to ensure we keep putting in new footpaths with water wells for all our street trees …. Over forty years we will save money and water. We have healthier trees with roots that go down which stops the lifting of pavements and the walls of nearby houses.

LIGHTING: If re-elected I will seek to revitalise our old fashioned, expensive street lighting, as, with the help of others, I have done for water. I will come up with new ideas including: LED lighting which is artistic, safe, illuminating and fun; lighting with Wi-Fi, which changes with time, switches brighter when needed and low when not… Clever lighting. We are using less electricity at home for more… Why not for our city? A better city at a lower cost!

RECREATION:   We are slowly being left behind with expensive facilities that cost us rates. Unley central in the evening dies. We go to Mitcham for movies, we pay 3% of our rates to support an outdoor pool that shuts for many months and we have disparate sporting facilities such as the Wayville/Forestville basketball stadiums. As past CEO of STARPlex, modelled on council facilities interstate that covered all their costs, I know we can do better. New ideas for Unley are ideas that work well for others.

Rates: I have made a difference. In my eight years 2006-2013 rates rose by 16% above CPI and in the previous SIX years by 37%

My policy is ‘TO SET A FAIR RATE FIRST AND THEN CUT OUR EXPENDITURE TO FIT”

 A fair rate to maintain good and new services is no more than CPI plus 1%. More money does not mean good services…… Our staff made $1.8 million worth of cuts with no loss of service in the past three years… This $1.8 M is a 6% cut in our costs, yet we raise rates well above CPI.           

What has been achieved?

Cr Michael		rate increase	ABOVE CPI	Time
BEFORE	1999-2005	56.33%	36.62%	Six years
AFTER	2006-2013	38.63%	15.87%	My Eight years

Other Issues:   These are important: safety, parking, traffic flow, footpaths, roads, rubbish and so many more. Ask for past newsletters detailing these and other issues. The bottom line, if I am re-elected I will continue to listen, to represent you when needed and to be effective in making a difference. NOT talk… It’s action that matters, not words.

 

VOTE                   1            MICHAEL HEWITSON   

 FOR HONEST INFORMED REPRESENTATION, Fair rates, focussed expenditure, new ideas, and good services…….

 

CHOOSE YOUR SECOND VOTE        2         CAREFULLY then 3 and 4.

Authorized by Michael Hewitson 10 Ramage Street Unley.