Saturday, September 29, 2018

UNDERWHELMINGNESS IN LAUNCESTON'S CBD

Reposted from LCC News

 CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
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THE UNDERWHELMING BLANK CANVAS was how the Launceston Chamber for Commerce EO, Neil Grose, described the new Brisbane Street Mall when asked on ABC radio on Friday morning after businesses “had done it tough” over the last couple of months. 

What a sad DISGRACE that the Launceston City Council allowed the waste of $26.5m to rebuild the Civic Square and Mall only to be labelled as looking UNFINISHED and BLAND. 

Even the LCC General Manager, Michael Stretton, all but admitted on Tasmania Talks radio that more ratepayers money will need to be spent FIXING the MISTAKES including identified HAZARDOUS structures and confessed to receiving numerous COMPLAINTS from public. 

How much more money has to be spent on this stuff up? Ratepayers will be facing a MULTI-MILLION dollar bill – yet again. 

There is NO allocation of money in the budget for upgrades – the Mall and Civic Square were meant to be the FINISHED projects (despite what Neil Grose incorrectly indicated)

Surely, then, in the planning process someone would have highlighted to the council the ERRORS of their ways? YES there was, but were they listened to? 

The answer to this question in an open letter to council is a MUST READ on Tasmanian Ratepayers Association…. https://tasratepayers.blogspot.com/2018/09/civic-works-critiques-and-worries.html (WARNING - prepare yourself to be shocked!) 

It is time for a CHANGE in council and it is in DESPERATE need for a clean out!! Please SHARE with your friends so that they too can see the TRUTH that council would prefer to be kept quiet.

'J' A peed of punter

EDITOR'S NOTE Ratepayers seem to have a lot of choice when it comes to the election that is upon us. There are enough candidates to turn every incumbent alderperson out to grass spending more time on other business pursuits and being able to get on with going places etc.

Well it sounds easy and in many ways it should. The incumbents have hardly bathed themselves in glory in their four years. That four year timeframe was supposed to allow them the opportunity to achieve something without the distraction of being held to 'electoral accountability'

It is now evident that without that 'distraction' you can manage to achieve very little beyond generating a humongous debt - $20Million!

Spending ratepayer's money is as they say 'dead easy' but getting VALUE for it is another thing. It is especially hard if you listen to the wrong 'experts' who themselves have found quasi experts who will agree with them and underpin their 'expert advice' and 'deem' it to be 'ridgy-didge, spot-on, the full bottle, whatever.

Apparently, going by the outcomes, Launceston has been blessed with such an expert with all the appropriate connections. Trouble is, corners have been cut, thought bubbles taken seriously and the constituency has been sidelined on the strength of a perception that they are bunch of 'know nothing hicks and wannabes'. 

THE INCUMBENTS well they just stood back and collected their stipends while they allowed the tail to wag the thylacines in Town Hall, around in the Mall and in other places. OUTCOME? A strategic mess. Ronald Reagan, always said that the "status quo" was Latin for 'THE MESS WE'RE IN'.

1 comment:

Sasha Stott said...

$20 million in debt to produce this???!! Are the aldermen practicing to move into State politics? Or maybe jobs as bank executives? More importantly, can Launceston afford this crowd of money wasters?