The South Australian Police commissioner has warned the force's horses are at risk of being homeless, with plans to move the mounted unit away from the city's fringe parklands hitting delays.
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00:00 Well it seems like no one these days is immune to the housing shortage and that includes
00:06 South Australia's police horse unit who are still waiting for their new home to start
00:10 construction in Gepps Cross before they need to leave this site here in Theverton in March.
00:16 Now where did this all start?
00:18 Back when the Liberal Government, the previous Liberal Government announced a plan for the
00:22 new Women's and Children's Hospital to be built next to the Royal Adelaide Hospital
00:27 but then Labor was voted into State Government and scrapped that plan saying that the site
00:31 was too small and instead moving it to this location here which is the heritage listed
00:38 Theverton Barracks where the police horse units are currently stationed.
00:43 Now they'll need to move to a location north of Adelaide in Gepps Cross costing taxpayers
00:48 around $90 million.
00:50 And yesterday we heard from Police Commissioner Grant Stephens talking to, speaking to a Parliamentary
00:56 Committee and he said that he was concerned that the new facilities in Gepps Cross weren't
01:01 going to be done in time for when they need to move out and said they would need to prioritise
01:05 building the horse stables and potentially using some temporary office accommodation.
01:10 A bit of context here, Grant Stephens was actually tasked with choosing where the horse
01:16 unit was going to be moved and his preferred site was a section of the Adelaide Parklands
01:22 but that drew outcry and protest from the Adelaide Parklands Association forcing the
01:27 State Government to step in and instead choose the location in Gepps Cross.
01:32 Another concern that was raised by Grant Stephens was that the fact that the Theverton Police
01:37 Barracks is home to a number of police units and he says they're still yet to identify
01:42 a new home for the police band and the Police Historical Society.
01:46 In response to this, State Treasurer Stephen Mulligan says he expects works on the Gepps
01:52 Cross site to commence next month and he said they're in the final discussions of deciding
01:57 where those remaining police units will be relocated.
02:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]