In relation to Geoff Mitchell’s letter concerning the reclassification of 73-75 Mann St (“Final nail in the coffin of Performing Arts Centre”, CCC 280), at no time was there ever a suggestion that this location could be the site for a Performing Arts Centre.
The Council action he refers to is nothing more than a formal move to put this property on the market, as part of the sell-off of assets that has been going on since the Administrator took over.
It is pretty obvious that this piece of property is superfluous to need, and we can certainly use the money, so let’s hope that the sale goes through as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, we’ll surely be seeing another request to IPART for a rate hike on top of what’s already requested.
As for the Performing Arts Centre, I think we can put that off to the Never-Never.
It’s impossible to say when the budget will be sufficiently in repair even to think of such a capital outlay, and Gosford was always a bad location for it, anyway, so there will be plenty of time to rethink the project.
Perhaps, when we get a new Council, there will be one or two councillors with some kind of vision for the city, rather than the political hacks that we suffered last time, and the whole idea can be approached anew.
Of course, if we gave up the idiotic idea of a regional library and reallocated those funds, we could probably have a Performing Arts Centre now, although, of course, the Council’s procrastination has, most likely, cost us the other contributions that were to cover the bulk of the expenditure.
If Lucy Wicks is looking for a pork-barrelling opportunity for the upcoming election, perhaps this could be it.
Email, Mar 19
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy
Could not of said it better Bruce, exactly correct.