FORMER Inverell Shire Councillor and chair of the original CBD Upgrade Committee for about five years, Larry Cameron, spoke out about the current draft Inverell Town Centre Renewal Plan at a public meeting held at the Inverell RSM Club auditorium on Wednesday night.
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He was one of about 100 members of the community who attended the meeting to get more information about the current draft plan or voice an opinion on the matter.
The meeting was organised by the council as part of the plan’s consul-tation process. In his opening address to the meeting Mayor Paul Harmon said it was an opportunity for the community to provide feedback.
“The consulting process is ongoing. I want to make it clear that we’re here to listen to any concerns you may have,” Cr Harmon said.
He said council was there to also hear any positive feedback. It certainly got both.
“I congratulate the consultant, because I believe there are quite a few good points in the plan he has come forward with,” Mr Cameron said.
“However, I then agree with most of you people, when I say that Inverell loves its plane trees.”
Mr Cameron said the upgrade committee originally undertook a wide consultation process to find out what the best tree was to plant in the CBD, and expert advice came back with the London plane tree.
“That was from an expert. Then again another expert recommended we plant them in pipes,” Mr Cameron said.
“So, if you’ve got a big enough cheque book you can get an expert to recommend just about anything.
“You could go out there and get someone who would recommend that we plant prickly pears up the main street if you’ve got a big enough cheque book.”
Mr Cameron said he acknowledged the plane trees had problems, but said the biggest problem they had was the reluctance of council to look after them.
“For years and years I advocated they be pruned and looked after and it was never done. The excuse was that it was going to cost too much,” Mr Cameron said.
“I have never seen a better town than Inverell with the plane trees up each side, and if they are pruned every couple of years they can be managed.
“Plane trees are as tough as a brown dog and you can’t kill them with a chainsaw.”
Mr Cameron said the new renewal plan would slow traffic down to such a degree that it would affect the businesses on Byron and Otho streets. He said Inverell is an inland, commercial town that needs good traffic flow-through.
“The good points in the plan (include) the upgrade of the Henderson Street roundabout, it should have been done 10 years ago. The Mansfield Street round-about, once again the council should have done it years ago,” Mr Cameron said.
“There are all sorts of comments about renewing the street furniture. We’ve got seats in Inverell at the moment that were made locally, they’re virtually vandal proof and they look shabby because council hasn’t looked after them.
“Certainly council is to be congratulated for looking ahead and looking forward, but I don’t think this is the scheme the residents of Inverell are looking for just yet.”
Interestingly, council did not try to explain their plan further to Mr Cameron, as it did with every other speaker on the night.