Nothing goes off on the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner website or Facebook page like the Mackay Park precinct.
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Ask what should be done with the former Batemans Bay Bowling Club site and a multitude of voices – and ideas - are raised.
It was a hot topic the day last drinks were called and remained so as weeds invaded the greens.
Our readers don’t walk in lockstep, but share a general vision of a recreational and arts facility that residents can be proud of and visitors will embrace.
There was much fanfare when Eurobodalla Shire Council purchased the site in April 2016, with the support of the Batemans Bay Chamber of Commerce and the arts community (see picture left).
Readers have trumpeted everything from ten-pin bowling to trampolining. We can’t recall one begging for the site to be leased as a construction compound for the new bridge.
Zero fanfare has attended the negotiations with Roads and Maritime Services.
The site was earmarked for lease – but not compulsory acquisition – in the environmental impact statement in late 2017, but had been talked about in NSW Government circles for months.
This masthead has sought confirmation since last Thursday from RMS that it would insist on compulsory acquisition of the site if a lease agreement failed – as the council says it has been told.
The silence from RMS has been deafening, with neither a confirmation nor a denial.
For the average ratepayer, the negotiations may as well have been occurring in deep space. The contrast between the fanfare of the purchase and the radio silence which, until last week, attended the negotiations is concerning.
Recent administrations have done much to repair communication channels fractured in the past. However, the shire has failed to be on the front foot on plans to lock up this site for several years.
Regardless of your views on what should be done, given the passionate response from readers over the years and the cost of the purchase, a more open conversation about the plans to lease the site should have been embraced.
Excuses of commercial-in-confidence don’t cut it. The decision to lease the northern part of the precinct may be the very best one possible – if so, the case should have been shouted from the rooftops last year.