ON Tuesday night Shoalhaven City Councillor Jemma Tribe will take on Cr Andrew Guile over his proposal to limit the number of times community groups can close Junction Court for events.
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Cr Tribe tabled a rescission motion against Cr Guile’s proposals to cap how many times Junction Court could be opened each year and to charge community groups a fee to use the space.
“I lodged the rescission motion because I think those things are a deterrent to community activity there and that’s unhelpful.
“When I speak to that rescission motion I’ll be asking a whole heap of questions from the community who feel they’ve been left out of this decision.
“Among those questions will be how much has this project blown out its budget?”
With more changes to come to the recently opened Junction Court, and more costs to accompany them, Cr Tribe believes the community has every right to be angry about how the public space has been handled.
Cr Tribe said Junction Court should not have been opened to traffic after stage one was complete.
She said while opening the area to traffic was planned by the previous council, once the raised grass area was removed and stage one was finished the community’s attitude toward the area shifted.
“After stage one opened something unexpected happened and people liked and used the space again,” Cr Tribe said.
“So I was saying back then let’s leave it as is. Don’t put cars through there at this time.
“That was what the community wanted, an open and vibrant space.
“But council, including Cr Guile, pushed and pushed to have it opened.
“Cr Guile can’t be bulldozing this through in council and then talk about what a stuff-up it is later.
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
She said she was disappointed traffic was put through Junction Court because it was a space that was starting to become more vibrant “but now it has become confusing with traffic”.
Cr Tribe said she would question why it was better to have 200 cars drive through the area instead of 1800 pedestrians walking through.
“I’d rather 1800 people walking past my business, not 200 cars driving past,” she said.
“I will also be asking how many of those 200 cars were taxis?”