WE love what’s happening in the CBD with the Nowra Alive initiative. The explosion of art works in surprising places has added texture and colour in what were dreary corners. Equally important, it has brought people together to engender a new sense of pride in the place where they live and work.
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When the art works first started going up around the CBD, quite a few of us doubted they would stay there for long. We feared they would be attacked by graffiti or simply torn down by vandals. Happily, that hasn’t happened.
We applaud Shoalhaven City Council for getting on the front foot with this initiative; it is making a real difference.
Unfortunately, though, other forms of corporate vandalism are leaving scars on our CBD. The rollout of the NBN throughout Nowra has seen paths torn up and patched with tar, creating eyesores and trip hazards and undoing some of the work council has done over the years to make the place look a little less rundown.
Even in our main shopping street, there is a big ugly patch where pavers have been dug up to accommodate the NBN infrastructure. This is simply unacceptable.
While the NBN is a necessary addition to our telecommunications system and we will all ultimately benefit from better internet access, we should not have to pay for it twice – once as taxpayers and again as ratepayers when council inevitably will have to properly fix the mess left behind.
We support the tabling of a motion at last week’s national assembly of the Australian Local Government Association in Canberra by Shoalhaven deputy mayor John Wells.
The motion sought greater legislative and regulatory control over utility providers to ensure when they disrupt council assets they are obliged to undertake repairs to a higher standard.
Many times over the years, the Register has reported telco pits left open and manhole covers left broken for months on end. We expect better of utility companies.
