At the Tuross Head Progress meeting on Thursday 3rd Nov attendees were advised that there was still no word from Council regarding a skatepark in Tuross. The Vice President, John Tilbrook, informed the meeting that Council had recently appointed a new person to the position that oversees such things as skateparks and that he had only just been informed by a Council officer that skating facilities were a low priority. The meeting erupted. From the floor it was made very clear that the Tuross Head community had long sought a skatepark; in fact there had been continued community requests for more than twenty years. " For more than twenty years the Council has been asked "where can we have a skatepark?" and "what can we?" have. Council have come back every time with a statement that they have no money. Time and time again the community has said "we don't need your money, we can raise funds ourselves from the community and grants, just tell us where we can have it and what we can have". Council even identified the lack of of youth facilities in Tuross Head in their 2011 Recreational Strategy Plan and put in that skating facilities should be provided. Nothing has been done since that recommendation. A Council officer addressed the Tuross Progress Association meeting in November last year and advised that they would organise a public meeting to discus "Where" and "What" but nothing came of this and yet a another year passes. There are many grants available from the State and Federal government. The Tuross community is more than capable of fund raising itself having done so for the bulk of the cycleway, the tennis courts and more recently the basketball court. The skatepark might be low on Council's priority list but it IS NOT low on the priority list of the many parents and kids in our town who are advised that if you want to skateboard then go to Moruya or Narooma. It was stated from the floor of the meeting that ll too often Tuross youth are seen skateboarding on the roads, in the carpark at the Memorial gardens, on the basketball court and on the new deck at Kyla Hall. The option of locations was put forward. In a recent survey of the community the preferred location was in Evans Reserve by the local garage. Other alternate locations are also avialable that could be discussed by the WHOLE community if Council stays true to their word of eventually holding a public meeting. The Deputy Mayor, Anthony Mayne, was in attendance at the THPA meeting and saw first hand that the Tuross community was becoming sick and tired of being fobbed off. The THPA will now be writing a strong letter to the new Councillors and Council requesting a public meeting to resolve the issue once and for all.
