THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #36 Thursday, May 14, 2009 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
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page 15
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Bay Street plans under a cloud Confusion surrounds the future of controversial Bay Street redevelopment plans with one of the key players saying they don’t want anything to do with it. Centro Properties, whose involvement in the proposed street-sell-off and multi-storey redevelopment is crucial to any deal going ahead, has denied any ‘current interest’ in the project in an email to the Tweed Heads Ratepayers’ Association. The startling revelation by the troubled shopping centre giant follows delays by would-be partner, developer Walker Corporation, in responding to a council demand at a meeting nearly three weeks ago to publicly disclose its plans for the site. Association president Laurie Ganter says the email from Centro management confirms what its Tweed Heads managers told him when they refused permission for his group to conduct a public survey about the proposal in their car park months ago. He says it raises questions about the future of the unpopular redevelopment and the secretive processes involved when Tweed councillors authorised the general manager to negotiate the sale of part of the street at their very first meeting. ‘You have to wonder why the council authorised the general manager to negotiate with both Centro and Walker Corporation if Centro is saying it has no interest in taking part – and whether there is any point in continuing the process,’ he said. The email says it plans to contact Mayor Joan van Lieshout ‘to explain Centro’s position and to follow-up in writing advising that Centro has no current interest in participating in a project involving the Bay Street land.’ ‘The main reason we will put our position in writing is so that our position is clear and unambiguous and on the record,’ it says. Cr van Lieshout, who supports the redevelopment after seeing a presentation last month, said yesterday she hadn’t yet received the letter but was surprised that Centro was saying it did not want to participate. ‘I can’t imagine how Centro would not be part
of the Bay Street sale when some of their land will be required to get delivery trucks out of Bay Street and to develop the proposed multi-storey building,’ she said. ‘My understanding is that Walker Corp is acting as agents for Centro but even so I would think they would need Centro’s co-operation and participation if they wanted a project of this nature to go ahead.’ A Walker Corp spokesman declined to com-
ment on Centro’s stand but said his company intended to comply with council’s request to go public with its redevelopment plans embracing part of the road reserve and Centro shopping centre land. ‘We have only just received notification from the council and it will be a while before we can piece together the information to a presentable stage,’ the spokesman said. Mr Ganter says the email only adds to the
community’s confusion and disquiet ever since the council decided at a closed-door meeting in October that it planned to close and sell off three quarters of an acre of Bay Street to promote the ‘commercial activation’ of the precinct. ‘It’s still unclear who is the driving force behind this contentious 1995 proposal which has been suddenly resurrected in a revamped form after being buried in 2001,’ he said. continued on page 2
Wave of success for Kingscliff surfers
A spectacular autumn rainbow is the perfect backdrop for the welcome to country ceremony at the start of the 2009 Tweed Coast Cup on Monday by local indigenous didgeridoo player Russell Corowa and SCU student and surf contest director Janine Kroemer. The photo was snapped by Shane Newman, an SCU student and official photographer for the event.
Kingscliff High School surfers won the fourth annual Tweed Coast Cup on Monday for the third time in a row, proving themselves outright champion surfing school in the Northern Rivers. The non-profit surfing competition held at Cabarita Beach is run by students from Southern Cross University (SCU) as part of their Diploma of Sports Management (Surfing Stud-
First Home Buyers
ies) course where they put all they learn into practice. More than 20 students from local schools including Tweed River High, Banora Point High, St Joseph’s College and reigning champions Kingscliff High battled it out for the 2009 Cup honours. Course lecturer Alan Fenn-Lavington said the event served a dual purpose.
‘The Tweed Coast Cup is unusual because it is one of the only intra-school events in the area, so it allows promising local surfers from Tweed and Northern Rivers schools to test their skills against people they wouldn’t necessarily come up against,’ he said. ‘The aim is also to give the university students experience in every aspect of organising and continued on page 2
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