A 90-million-dollar plan to relocate the state's police horses has been labelled a waste of money. The Police Association is also warning the project, to move the state's mounted operations to Gepps Cross, could lead to a significant number of police riders walking away.
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00:00 A costly plan which has outraged the police union.
00:05 It will be an ineffective service for the community of South Australia by having to
00:09 truck horses into the city to respond to incidents that emerge quickly.
00:13 After ditching a plan to move South Australian Police's mounted operations unit to a parkland
00:19 site, then abandoning a move to Adelaide Airport over contamination concerns, the government
00:27 then locked in a plan to move the horses to Gepps Cross, but the $90 million cost has
00:32 raised eyebrows.
00:34 This is double the cost of what it would have cost the taxpayer to relocate within the parklands
00:40 or an inner city location.
00:41 This is an investment that is backing in our mounted operations unit, backing in Safe Hole
00:46 and will be an investment for decades and decades to come.
00:51 The relocation is required because of plans for the new women's and children's hospital
00:56 at the mounted unit's current Theberton site, but the union says one third of its members
01:02 surveyed have indicated they'll refuse to work at the new site.
01:07 It's also concerned response times will jump from 15 minutes to almost two hours, but the
01:14 government says that's wrong.
01:16 The reason that it won't be two hours is because of the fact that our city staging facility
01:21 is a core part of this.
01:22 We'll have more information to be able to furnish the public with in the near future.
01:27 This government is presiding over a complete mess when it comes to the police barracks.
01:33 The dog squad will also move to the new fit for purpose facility.
01:37 It's expected to be completed by mid 2024.
01:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]