Councillor and MP argue over North Adelaide street crossing
Adelaide City Council will speed up plans to install a new pedestrian crossing on a busy North Adelaide street due to safety concerns, amid argument between a councillor and local MP over funding and responsibility.
The council will look at options to install a wombat crossing, which is a raised pedestrian zebra-striped crossing, on Melbourne Street in the 2025/26 financial year.
The crossing is estimated to cost $730,000 and was already part of the council’s $5 million Main Streets Revitalisation Master Plan for Melbourne Street but these upgrades are still years away.
Last night, the council voted to progress the plans for the crossing after hearing that a 14-year-old student was hit in the vicinity of the current crossing on September 9.
“A staff member from Ronald McDonald House attended her, she required an ambulance and was taken to hospital with leg injuries and concussion,” Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape said.
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“Fortunately the injuries weren’t critical, but we shouldn’t have to wait until they are.”
A render of the proposed wombat crossing the council released in 2023. This photo: via Facebook
Councillor Carmel Noon agreed the spot near Ronald McDonald House is a priority area because “families staying at Ronald McDonald House often include individuals with mobility challenges”.
“Whether they are sick children, elderly family members, or parents carrying infants, a wombat crossing provides a safer more accessible option for crossing the road, especially for those in wheelchairs or strollers, as the wombat crossing is elevated and forces people to slow down and is not reliant on signs,” she said.
The council received a $1 million grant from the state government, which was a state election commitment, to revitalise Melbourne Street for small businesses.
These works started in 2023 and included footpath extensions, replacing planter boxes, relocating street furniture like seats and bike racks and installing banners on flagpoles.
Snape said the concept designs to use the grant funding originally included a wombat crossing outside Ronald McDonald house.
“Unfortunately, my understanding is a short time after the creation of the original concept designs, the member for Adelaide Lucy Hood requested that the location of the wombat crossing be moved to the eastern end of Melbourne Street.
“Shortly after that, instead of a wombat crossing in either location, [she requested] that her funding be diverted to cosmetic upgrades of Melbourne Street.
“While all of these decorative elements are certainly worthy upgrades to the street, they came at a deeply disappointing cost to the families and staff at the Ronald McDonald House and indeed myself who has been advocating for a safety crossing upgrade since the start of this term,” he said.
Hood told InDaily that her election commitment “was to clearly support small businesses through the revitalisation of Melbourne Street – not fix council’s broken promises”.
“Keiran Snape needs to check his facts. Councillor Phillip Martin moved a motion more than four years ago to look at installing a crossing near Ronald McDonald House and in four years council has done nothing,” she said.
“Only weeks ago Keiran Snape passed the council budget – so why didn’t he push for funding for the crossing then? He hasn’t done his job properly, which is unfortunate for the incredible staff and clients of Ronald McDonald House”.
Councillor Phillip Martin said he remembers a meeting at the Lord Melbourne Hotel between the council and the state government where designs of a wombat crossing were shown.
“I think it’s been delayed so long, it was I who moved that, I think it was in the last council,” Martin said.
“It’s disappeared, I don’t know why the wombat was squashed but it’s gone and the sooner it comes back, the better.
“The incident that was mentioned by Councillor Snape is one of many near misses that could have been just as serious.”
Councillor Mary Couros said the wombat crossing was a council commitment, whereas the state government was focused on revitalisation to support businesses in the precinct.
“It wasn’t an election promise by the member of Adelaide, it was a promise by the City of Adelaide so it’s our responsibility to make sure that we get this off the ground,” Couros said.
“I know the member of Adelaide promised to revitalise Melbourne Street and that’s exactly what she’s done.
