Marty Branagan’s letter (08/08/12) in your newspaper must have resonated strongly with many electors in the Armidale Dumaresq area, as it did with me as a Greens candidate in the upcoming local government election.
Armidale Dumaresq has suffered for too long from a lack of long-term vision in planning and development as well as residential and environmental amenity. We need to develop and ensure the implementation of policies that will encourage and attract new and sustainable enterprises to our area based on our strengths. The latter include our connection to the NBN and our access to reliable water, together with an acknowledgement that we need to develop co-operative ventures that utilise the University research facilities and staff expertise.
Community access to the Monckton Aquatic Centre should be extended so that at least some of the facility is available year-round for swimming and associated event hire. The current crisis with regard to the retention of Dumaresq Dam as a local and national recreation area highlights how we tend to take for granted such facilities until they are threatened. A new approach to access and management of this wonderful resource should be considered once we have secured its future in its present state.
The reputation of Armidale as a City of the Arts can only be enhanced by redevelopment of the Memorial Library site through the construction of a new library centre and the complementary inclusion of a performing arts centre that is suited to the long-term needs of the community. This could be achieved by the implementation of a staged development that contributes to the rejuvenation of central areas of the CBD that have unfortunately fallen into a hiatus state due to satellite development centred largely on multi-national retail chains.
The Greens are running a ticket of candidates from a wide cross section of the local community in the election on September 9. Their election to the Armidale Dumaresq Council will ensure a strong commitment to sustainability, improved health through woodsmoke reduction, thereby increasing opportunites for attracting new residents, coupled with the adoption of long-term goals that will enhance our built, natural and cultural environments.
Peter O’Donohue,
Greens candidate for a Sustainable Future
