Cr Darren Kruse
Position
Ward
Suburbs
Address
Hello again, it’s such a long time ago since I wrote for the May edition of MCN. Unfortunately, I was unable to write for the July edition. So much has happened, including Council’s term being unexpectedly extended with elections now rescheduled for April 2027. We make multiple decisions at every meeting, so in 500 words I can only reference some.
On 16 June we voted to increase the free Green Waste dropoff days at Lynton from 12 to 22 free drop-off days annually. Of the 22 days, 16 are scheduled to support bushfire preparation, with the remaining six scheduled throughout the year. There is now online booking via https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/garden-waste-drop-off-facility
On 7 July we adopted the 2026/27 Annual Business Plan, with an average increase of $151 per household, most of which was CPI at 4.3%. Of the many changes, I’m most pleased we increased the library operating hours. The new hours of operation are slated to begin in November after staff consultation completes.
On 11 August we endorsed a new Leasing and Licensing of Council's Sports Facilities Policy which included setting fees and charges for use of the brand new $1.8m Hawthorndene Community Changeroom Facility: $15/hour for community and local residents; $280.97 per year for community sporting club licence. It’s then available for hire 7am to 10pm on weekdays and 8am to 8pm on weekends outside the any lease arrangements to the Coromandel Ramblers Cricket Club, without whom this facility would not exist. Their tireless pursuit of grant funding has enabled Council to build this new facility for all of us to enjoy. Thank you.
This fantastic facility will be opened to the public on Saturday 12 September. I hope to see many of you there. Bring your dogs, we even built a dog drink station into the side of the building!
The rollout of LED streetlights has been occurring Council-wide since 2018. However, in Craigburn Farm, Springfield and Urrbrae the replacement of the existing heritage character ‘Kensington’ style lights with modern equivalents has understandably been met with concerted opposition. Council has paused the rollout by our subcontractor SAPN until the full cost of doing a like-for-like replacement is known. It is likely to be several hundred thousand dollars. If so, a vote in the Chamber will likely be needed.
Also in August, Council again endorsed the 175th Anniversary Publication Project. Recording our history is important.
Finally, I know how hard it is to keep track of Council’s many projects and decisions. To fully understand the arc of a project from the first vote to ribbon-cutting requires finding and reading multiple agendas and minutes, sometimes over years. To make it easier to surface these stories I’ve built with AI a tool that indexes the ~ 14,000 publicly available documents of Council so that coherent timeline reports can be automagically created. I’ve called it mitcham.counciltracer.app and have made it free for residents. Example sample reports show its surprising capabilities. I hope it’s useful.
As always, please call me to discuss anything Council.
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