The Beagle Editor, The Mackay Park project is fast becoming a farce and it is more than obvious that the Council staff are in charge of it all. Last night the Director of Planning announced that the proposed 10 lane 25m pool will be to an international Short course standard and would also be used for water polo. Yesterday the councillors found out that Stephen Phipps, the leisure centre project manager has told the public that the building will cost more than $51 million dollars because of the foundations and that things will have to go. Mr Usher said last night at a public meeting he agreed with Mr Phipps. Mr Hallaky said that there are 220 carparks and that they wouldn't schedule theatre events at the same time as pool events so there was no issue with parking. Mr Usher has said that there won't be any bus stop there and people will have to walk or drive. Then they say the staff say are getting rid of the Mini Golf but the Mayor says that they might rebuild it later. Now they have painted themselves into a corner because today Andrew Constance announced that a multi million dollar Batemans Bay TAFE is going to be built at Hanging Rock. Did the councillors know? Bet they had no idea at all. Mr Usher and the General Manager would have known because the land is Crown under council control. Why bother telling the councillors when it is an operational matter.
The big question now is that the ROSS report identified Hanging Rock for a basketball stadium - will it now go ahead or will the new TAFE replace it ? Good thing they built the Beach Road roundabout is all I can say - If you build it they will come - and they have! B. Gorigori Moruya
