Rex Jory: Preservation of Adelaide's parklands is vital

SA needs to preserve Light's vision to give the growing community the gift of just plain open spaces, writes Rex Jory in The Advertiser.

Local people crowd into scarce city parks created in former landfill sites or sewage treatment works or go to the hills surrounding Seoul. It would be trite to compare Adelaide with Seoul but as high-rise and medium-density apartments are built here, the city population will inevitably rise and open space will become more important.

He says the Adelaide parklands must be preserved, not only for the increasing number of residents but also for the enjoyment of all South Australians. Visionaries are needed to preserve Colonel Light's vision - to give the community the precious gift of just plain open spaces. "It is not just about the odd cafe or kiosk in the south Park Lands or the occasional sporting facility in the west Park Lands or the small intrusion for the Adelaide High School," Cr Plumridge says.

"No, it is more about building new hospitals, massive sporting facilities with attendant car parking, grand schemes for 15-storey office and apartment blocks on the `wasted' Festival Centre Plaza, bastardising the magnificent architecture of the railway station and desecrating the stately facades of Parliament with new buildings ... "

SPRA shares the concerns of Rex Jory that the parklands need to preserved as open spaces for the community to make use of and not be commercialised.