For those present and for those streaming live the following statement was read out by Mayor Liz Innes. It is published here for clarity so that any comments and any discussion based around her statement can be clearly advised by the statement and not by hearsay of what she may or may not have said:
Mayor Liz Innes:
Council staff have been very clear in all of their communications that any proposal, in order to be successful, must be affordable. This was an underlining objective in the brief to the consultants engaged to assist us in moving forward with these much needed community facilities. This has also been a consistent and strong point in all of my communications on this topic. In response to a question from a member of the public at one of the information sessions held at Hanging Rock on Monday, I was very clear that I was not supportive of an SRV to fund the project. I clearly stated that we needed to ensure that what was built was affordable. I also indicated in response to those that were advocating for a larger facility that I have a feeling we are more likely to find ourselves in a shortfall with respect of funds and having to look at further compromises and options of reducing rather than increasing the size of the facility.
We are still in a relatively early stage of the planning process and faced with the potential of securing significant grant funds toward this project. If successful we will be in a much better position to progress to detailed design, budgeting and business planning. We have already indicated that we will need to look at potential income streams from the lease or sale of the existing community centre and VIC sites to meet any increase in ongoing costs. Likewise we will need to progress opportunities arising from the former Batemans Bay Bowling Club site, which sensibly, is recommended to remain unencumbered to increase the development potential and economic return of the site and the precinct overall.
Thank you to Eurobodalla Council's communication team for providing this following our request.
