I read a recent article from a candidate for the September 8 local government election for Armidale Dumaresq Council. In reading it, the term damned if you do and damned if you don’t sprang to my mind. The candidate was critical of Council for us spending money on determining how the development application should be dealt with for the proposed International Aviation College. All Councillors were keen to see this development happen and if that meant spending a relatively small amount of money to give guidance to the developer as to the status of the development application they would be required to submit, then so be it.
Had we adopted the candidate’s implied thinking of not investigating whether or not the development had the potential to ‘get off the ground’, the community would have been outraged, and rightly so.
Back when I was a retailer in women’s and men’s fashion clothing in the Armidale Mall, the previous owner, Brian Jury, gave me some very good advice. He said that whenever sales representatives came into my shop, always be polite to them and always look in their suitcases to see what sort of merchandise they are selling. He told me that a sales rep came into his shop one day, and even though he (Brian) had stock in every nook and cranny of his shop, he still looked into the rep’s suitcase and enquired about the shirts inside. The fellow said, “It’s a new label called Country Road. I reckon it could be a winner”.
If I am re-elected to Council on September 8, I will listen to all prospective developers and always ‘look in their suitcases’ to see what development plans and ideas might be in there. I will keep looking for the next ‘winner’.
Cr Rob Richardson,
Councillor
Armidale Dumaresq Council
