The Beagle Editor,
Your readers might like to read an Open Letter to the Mayor, Liz Innes from the group Our Towns Our Say,
Liz,
back in November 2017, Andrew Constance instructed you to 'go back and revise your costings'. Why have you not done so?
In the same month, we gave you a Brief of Evidence which contained letters from a number of community groups including the Batemans Bay Swimming Club, Swimming NSW, the Soldiers Club, Elite Energy, Surf Life Saving, fitness professionals, U3A, CWA, the Public Schools Sporting Association (with 11 member schools and some 4,000 school children), St Peters College in Broulee, St Bernards in Batehaven, Aboriginal Elders, to name some, all of whom opposed the demolition of our 50m pool and your proposal to replace it with a 25m pool.
Your own survey revealed overwhelming support for a 50m pool to be included in the development (either indoor or outdoor).
You claimed that a 50m pool is 'unaffordable' yet we proved you wrong with our independent Order of Indicative Costs.
You said there would be room in the final plan for future expansion. That is untrue.
In 2016, your general manager negotiated a purchase of the Bowling Club in Batemans Bay for $2.7m despite local real estate agents at the time claiming the market value to be somewhere between $1.1 and $1.5m. The Valuer General valued this land at $1.5m in the same year. Your council very quickly classified this land to 'operational' to shut out any community input into its future use.
Your general manager claims that this purchase was 'strategic'. Certainly, this purchase was never meant for the benefit of the community who submitted Expressions of Interest at your council's request.
We then learned that the building was 'uninhabitable' and subsequently bulldozed to allow the RMS to move in.
You have squashed two very different facilities onto the one site against the wishes of stakeholders. You have failed to honour your promise to stand shoulder to shoulder with the community.
Why have you turned your back on what the majority in this community have told you time and time again that it wanted?
