GAWLER Council and the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure have clashed over new plans for the demolition and replacement of the King Street Bridge.

At an Infrastructure and Environmental Services meeting last Tuesday, DPTI representatives were set to give a presentation to elected members on the latest design for the new bridge, which is set to be released for public consultation soon.

The representatives were set to give their presentation a week earlier, but advised council they were not yet ready to do so.

During last week’s meeting, the representatives requested a confidential session be called to run through the new plans with councillors before they were released to the public.

This was rejected by elected members though, who wished to keep the presentation and any subsequent decisions on the bridge open to the community.

As a result, the DPTI representatives advised they would not complete their presentation and left the meeting, saying they wanted to get council’s views on the new plans privately prior to a formal public consultation process.

During debate, Mayor Karen Redman said there was “no need” to keep the presentation in confidence.

“It’s already public knowledge,” she said. “There has already been a public consultation process for people in that vicinity and there’s been public statements around the electrification ad the removal of the bridge,” she said.

“I don’t see why we can’t discuss that in the public realm because there is already a design which is out there in public documents, council agenda reports produced in good faith by DPTI.

“I think in good faith tonight we should discuss this in the public realm.”

The more than 100-year-old King Street Bridge is slated for removal as part of the Gawler Rail Line Electrification Project.

It’s set to be replaced with a higher pedestrian and bicycle-only bridge, with initial designs already released and accompanied by a round of public consultation across late 2019 and earlier this year.

A DPTI spokesperson said the department was still finalising the latest design, but did not answer why it wanted to keep last week’s presentation away from public eyes.

“The department has been consulting with the Town of Gawler and the local community throughout the design process, including holding public consultation on an initial concept design in late 2019, and early 2020,” the spokesperson said.

“As a result of this consultation, the department has developed an updated design incorporating an at-grade footbridge that is sympathetic to the heritage of the surrounding area.

“The department has endeavoured to work as closely as possible with the Town of Gawler as design works have progressed, and has offered a confidential briefing to elected members on the latest iteration of the design.

“Once the design has been further progressed, the Department will undertake consultation with the wider community including the Town of Gawler.”