Council forges ahead with sale of old Council Chambers

Central Coast Council will forge ahead with the proposed sale of the former Gosford Chambers site and surrounding lots to the State Government for the erection of a vertical TAFE despite community please for its retention.

The site was mooted by Council in 2018 for a Cultural Precinct which was to take up an entire CBD block bounded by Mann St, Donnison St and Henry Parry Dr.

But the plan was abandoned in 2019, with Council opting instead to push ahead with a stand-alone Regional Library in Donnison St.

Community activist Joy Cooper told Council at the public forum prior to the December 13 meeting that she found the intention to proceed with the sale “distressing and disappointing”.

“Council’s intention to sell off this prime real estate in the middle of Gosford city centre is one of the starkest examples of poor management of this community’s assets that I have seen since the creation of the Central Coast Council,” she said.

She said the lots were part of Tranche 1 of Council’s asset selloff, which she said were pushed through with no public consultation.

Cooper said the land was originally slated for a performing arts precinct and should not be sold until some lots “have gone through the correct process for reclassification”.

“I think it is potentially unlawful for you to pass a resolution agreeing to sell community land, even if you use the words ‘pending reclassification’,” she said.

“This matter is time sensitive because the NSW Government is edging closer to caretaker mode and the March 2023 election.

“The Broadwater Hotel sat in a derelict state for many years while the good people of this community waited patiently for their long-promised regional library and then their performing arts centre.”

Cooper said there was no need to rush a sale, with the $60M asset sales target having been reached months ago.

Also opposing the sale at the public forum was Barney Waters, President of the Friends of the Performing Arts Precinct (FOPAP).

“FOPAP has been campaigning for many years now for a performing arts centre or precinct to be built in Gosford,” he said.

“We have been promised various sites, from the waterfront to the city centre.

“We have been told State and Federal funding was secured.

“Gosford needs a cultural heart; I have lost count of the number of years we have been saying that now.”

Barney Waters

“As its population expands, it will need a cultural heart even more than it does now.

“The most appropriate location for a cultural facility is Mann St.

“The value to the Coast’s visitor economy of a state-of-the-art performing arts facility would be in the billions.

“We’ve been told that the ‘round building’ (proposed in the waterfront development plan) ‘could be’ a cultural or arts building; w haven’t received any clarity about the purpose of that building.”

Waters said with Council having announced that the financial crisis is over, the prime piece of real estate in the middle of Gosford would be “easy to develop and could be truly magnificent”.

The Community Environment Network has also called for a halt to all future asset sales, with the target amount having been reached.

But Council CEO David Farmer has been given authority to execute a contract of sale for the land with the Minister for Skills and Training.

“For a long time Council was running two administration buildings,” Farmer said after the meeting.

“We didn’t take advantage of efficiencies available by centralising at one location.”

Farmer said the development of a new modern TAFE facility would meet the “broader needs of vocational training”.

“We entered a Memorandum  of Understanding (MOU) 12 months ago and are now very close to signing a contract for sale,” he said.

“This will be an important part of the re-birth of Gosford.”

Farmer said the city centre would benefit from a university planned for the northern end of Mann St and a TAFE building at the southern end, with the new Regional Library perfectly situated between them as a resource for students.

Terry Collins