IS THIS COUNCIL DESTROYING A SMALL TOWN BUSINESS? FIND OUT!
The past couple of weeks, I have heard countless heart breaking stories of councils doing their best to ruin small town businesses in the name of money – and I’m over it!
I was enjoying happy hour a week back when I heard a couple sadly telling of a council taking ownership of a profitable caravan park away from The Lions Club, who have successfully managed the park for 30 years and even gave $350,000 back to council last year. That’s not bad for a town of 2,000, so do you think this is a case of putting in better management or greed?
If you haven’t heard of this one yet, it’s happening in a small Tasmanian town called Port Sorrell.
However, Council want to terminate the agreement, which The Lions Club says will lose them about $25,000. This is a really upsetting thought when you consider how much the club has put into the community.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the small town of Barmah (a real beauty on the Murray River) is facing a serious blow to tourism after the council decided to close one of their caravan parks.
Local publican, John Powell, said the decision would ultimately lead to the death of the town and noted that it made no sense for them to limit tourism when they just invested money into restoring the old punt on the river specifically for tourists.
When asked about it, John said ‘‘why take away the place for people to stay if you want them to come here and look at these things? There’s nothing else in this town. If we don’t have tourism, we have nothing. If you want people to come up and see it, they need places to camp. If you take 50 per cent of that away, the town would be dead.”
If the councils aren’t going to fight for the small guys, then I will! How many times have us vanners commented on how great small towns are. Imagine having some of our favourites die out due to greed? It’s terrible beyond words – both for us and the towns! Who else is with me?
Have you got any stories of councils overstepping the mark? If so, let us know by emailing: [email protected]