Darren Kruse - Councillor for Craigburn Ward, Mitcham Council

09/12/2025

Kids playing under City of Mitcham sprinklers? So high risk the CEO says it needs a full risk assessment, insurer approval & another report first. 🤦 My motion to turn on the sprinklers for a few hours if it hits 35 C is up tonight. Hopefully a compromise can be reached.

Full agenda, this motion & the audio (Thursday) here https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/Our-city-and-council/your-council/minutes-and-agendas

05/12/2025

Blackwood Christmas Pageant 2025 tonight! Council staff have organised for us these rather special City of Mitcham wheelie bins. Looking forward to seeing all of our wonderful community showing how to celebrate Christmas. See you on Main Road from 6:30 and get the kid ready to catch the lollies!

21/11/2025

Beyond the 3 Rs. At the LGA AGM 2025. Councils deliver SO much more. From Animals to Vehicle's. Many sub-services under each of these for ~ $40 per week on average in City of Mitcham
https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/our-services/report-an-issue-or-request-a-service

20/11/2025

Full house this morning at the LGA AGM with delegates from every Council in SA. Will be voting later today - it's all directed at influencing the Local Government Minister Nick Champion to achieve better planning outcomes for our communities for sustainable development with trees in suburbs we all want to and can live in in the age of a warming climate.
The LGA is led by our Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross, so our voice is definitely being heard!

11/11/2025

Today we commemorated Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice of 1918 that ended fighting in World War I.

While not on the Council Agenda tonight, I am aware that multiple Councillors attended at multiple ceremonies across our city this morning at 11AM to pay our respects and remember those who have served, suffered and given their lives for our country - marked at the hour the guns on western front fell silent in WW1

Lest we forget.
https://www.facebook.com/BlackwoodRsl

27/10/2025

Nice that ABC Adelaide is giving this airtime, but City of Mitcham already does fine owners of unregistered, or wandering cats since January 2024 - it's in the annual table of fee's and charges ; page 10
https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0043/697984/City-of-Mitcham-Schedule-of-Fees-and-Charges-2025-2026.pdf
includes
$210 Cat Expiation - Cat Management By-Law - Cat not confined to premises
$170 Cat Expiation - Cat Management By-Law - Unregistered Cat - expiation fee

The political compromise we had to make in 2023 was that "existing" cats were grandfathered in as poor tiddles was used to wandering anywhere every night.
See https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/our-services/animals/cats-in-the-city

What do you think? 🐈

Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre founder Beverley 'Bev' Langley is calling for South Australian councils to make changes to cat curfews fines after the WA government introduced laws to help councils to issue fines to owners of roaming cats.

“These are great guidelines for our government to follow without reinventing the wheel all over again to protect pet cats and wildlife,” Ms Langley told 891 ABC Radio Adelaide’s Nikolai Beilharz.

“We commend the WA government for showing leadership and finally committing to give councils the tools they’ve been crying out for to keep pet cats and native animals safe.”

Tune in to Drive with Nikolai Beilharz on 891AM ABC Radio Adelaide or on the ABC listen app: https://bit.ly/AdelaideRadioLive

22/10/2025

This is fantastic news. I'm *delighted* that this major new $1.8M shared use community facility is *finally* being built after much debate, compromise and very significant grant fundraising by the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club. Major kudos to the club leaders for persevering, esp Matt Smith and Glen Rosie as Council first allocated the initial $20K budget and in principle support as a State Election Priority Project waaaaaay back on 14 November 2017.

So, it only took eight years. So many ups and downs you could write a soap opera. Plenty of stoic heroes, a few villains.

Critical to the success was bringing women's sport back to the oval in 2024 in the form of the Blackwood Football Club who's junior girls teams needed additional space to train. Looking forward to seeing this eco friendly, sympathetic build progressing - starting next week and due for completion in ~ May 2026.

I'm sure in the years to come it will be widely used by *many* community groups! Goodbye to Stalin's toilets!

07/09/2025

On Father's Day, hug your kids and please help Adrian from Craigburn Farm to save his 9 year olds leg.
Brody is just 9 years old and has an aggressive bone cancer in his femur. His family are facing $80,000 for specialist medical fees in Vic because the SA public system can't. Please donate & share, if you’re not able to donate. 🫶🏼

Hi, my name is Sharon Rodgers and I'm a close friend of the Weinert Fami… Sharon Rodgers needs your support for HELP 9-YEAR-OLD BRODY FIGHT HIS CANCER BATTLE!

23/08/2025

At last. 🙏 A month after unilaterally cancelling a sport enjoyed for 30 years by over 300 players, by so many families - without ANY notice to them or to Council I'm incredibly pleased to see that *finally* someone at the Blackwood Community Recreation Centre management committee appears to be listening to the obvious community outrage.

1500 petitioners across many sports have sent a very clear message that you just don't do this. The Blackwood Blaze Inline Hockey Club, Adelaide has mobilised far more than just hockey with signatures from many sports and many many Mitcham residents. Jade, Shan - you are true leaders of your hockey community with many others pitching in to help fix what is an existential crisis.

This BRCA Inc offer to 1) reinstate inline hockey, 2) better understand their program costs , 3) improve their communications and 4) improve their Governance is welcome, but frankly, it should have been 4) and then 1) as their priorities and.. because 2) and 3) are to be assumed for basic competence...

This was *never* just about the $ for a damaged floor or even about inline hockey. This was a total absence of transparent decision making, poor governance and what I found on 22 July was a hidden two-tier Constitution that denied a transparency and a voice to all sports with only the (still undisclosed..) set of "Associate members" getting a vote. 👎👎 This MUST change. The BCRA Inc can call a SGM anytime and hold it in 21 days to fix this broken Constitution. IMHO they should.

So, this belated letter from the BCRA Inc management is good, but not "golden". It's a set of promises.

That it's from their VP is encouraging. Questions remain that I hope they will answer when hopefully a new, *different* representative of theirs comes to the chamber next Tuesday ahead of Cr Tilley's motion for Council to walk away - *again*.. like he successfully voted for in 2021. 😡😡😡

It then took several years for my fellow hills Councillors to turn that appalling vote around, to get back to the miracle 15 year lease decision in March 2025 ..that the BCRA then totally jeopardised 🤦by this *now* rescinded decision to cancel inline hockey.

So, if you come from ANY sport and want to see the Rec go ahead - BUT with better governance a voice for ALL sports and ongoing $105K pa Council support for all the niche, unusual sports that other gyms will never deliver, then please give this up a thumbs up but even better come to council next Tuesday.

On Tuesday, it's 2021 all over again. Please come lend your support. 7PM. We need 7 out of 12 votes. The mayor has the 13th casting vote which hopefully won't be needed.

19/08/2025

The long awaited (funded in 2023-2024) draft Bike Strategy 2025-2030 will be released for comment from 7PM tonight ahead of wider community consultation in a month or two. Public information session, all welcome. These sessions are not recorded.

Better trail inter-connectivity and safety enhancements. So, I’ve asked staff for costings for more safety fencing at the bottom of Old Belair Road to stop bikes randomly popping into the downhill traffic.

We love the vast majority of our biking youth, but the questionable actions of a few demands we do more.

Full program hereb:
https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/Our-city-and-council/your-council/Council-meetings-and-committees/briefings

1. Moving Mitcham Integrated Transport Plan: Part 1 - ITP and Part 2: Bike Plan

2.Team Update: Tree Management

3. 2024/25 Capital Works Program Summary - Infrastructure

13/08/2025

kamikaze mountain bike youth hoons on Old Belair Road - time to fence them in.
I'm asking staff for $ estimates for more fencing to stop reckless mountain bikers randomly entering at various points at the bottom of Ando's and also randomly crossing the road higher up to enter the Brownhill Creek private land track - 50m from a blind corner! 🤦‍♂️
Most of the kids and youth using the SA Government Mitcham-Belair train loop are great. Responsible, safe riders. 🙏
But... there are many that are not...😡
I have personally experienced several near misses on the way to Council meetings at or after dusk with these reckless idiots on Old Belair Road. Someone will get seriously injured or die.

There is good ongoing co-ordination between City of Mitcham staff and SAPOL on this issue, there has been a round table with SAPOL set up by Catherine Hutchesson MP 👍, but SAPOL do not think they can arrest their way out of the problem - at least under current laws.... *

My five questions to staff ahead of a motion:
1. would staff support the funding of additional fencing on Old Belair Road, southern side between Gate 3 and Gate 4 to prevent random, high speed incursions by bikes?
2. What are the indicative costs of extending the existing fencing ?
3. Would staff seek SA Government grant funding contributions to create additional fencing to prevent the entry into the Brownhill Creek Private land (where the issue is the bikes crossing Old Belair Road) and at the James Road intersection ? The very low guardrail installed by DIT facilitates this.
4. What other or additional environmental changes are recommended ? more CCTV ?

Finally, while this is more a question for SAPOL and for the SA Government, but in staff opinion :
5. Should SAPOL should be given greater powers to deter this behaviour ?
I stand to be corrected, but my understanding of the present laws that limit SAPOL's ability to deter this behaviour exclude:

a) They can't confiscate bikes : The Criminal Law (Clamping, Impounding and Forfeiture of Vehicles) Act 2007 currently only applies to motor vehicles. Consideration should be given to extending similar confiscation powers to bicycles used dangerously, particularly expensive mountain bikes

b) There is no specific "Dangerous Cycling" Offence: Unlike dangerous driving provisions, there is no specific dangerous cycling offence with appropriate penalties.

c) There is no mandatory bicycle identification: While bicycles are currently exempt from registration, some form of identification system could assist in accountability and enforcement

24/07/2025

Coromandel Valley Road completely blocked near Sanderson's fodder store - Avoid