Centre of controversy: Springwood Chamber of Commerce is concerned by
council plans to consider selling the Springwood Civic Centre site. |
Council is facing increasing pressure to reject any move by Woolworths to
come to Springwood after the town’s Chamber of Commerce formally criticised this
possibility last week.
In its submission to council’s plan for Springwood’s revitalisation, the
chamber of commerce stated “the introduction of a national chain supermarket
will not resolve the problems associated with the identified trade downturn for
small retailers in the town centre”.
“In fact, lessons from other, similar ventures show the potential to impact
very seriously on existing small retailers. Were the expressions of interest
stage to lead to input from large, national retail chains, the Chamber of
Commerce would insist on its right to very significant involvement in the
subsequent BMCC decision-making process.”
Although the submission does not refer to Woolworths by the name, council has
already admitted the supermarket giant has informally approached it about coming
to Springwood.
Council will vote on an expression of interest process for the Springwood
town centre next month where it is expected to invite the private sector to
submit proposals for the town.
These will be focused on three sites: the civic centre/library precinct, the
northern (Franklins) car park, and the southern (town square) car park.
While the chamber of commerce welcomed council’s concern for the economic
vitality of the Springwood town centre, it urged council to retain its “village
atmosphere”.
It also urged caution over council’s ambitious timetable for the project.
“The Springwood Chamber of Commerce points out that whatever schedules the
BMCC has set for this process should not dictate results of the process in any
way, and that the results of the process are far more important than maintaining
any arbitrary timetable ever could be,” the submission states.
The chamber also poured cold water on plans to sell council-owned land to pay
for facilities like a new civic centre.
Admitting it was aware of the current civic centre’s shortcoming, it
nevertheless stated “the selling of council land, and subsequent loss of control
of the future of that land, in order to fund rebuilding or refurbishment, could
well not be in the interests of the existing retail businesses and may well be
considered unethical in the light of the council’s responsibilities to its
ratepayers and residents”.