Carving a niche
I was delighted to see the new wonderfully crafted wooden map on display in the foyer of the Bega Valley Shire Council.
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The map shows the many impressive and varied infrastructure and tourist attractions throughout the region, from the Merimbula Airport, food and wine, Sapphire Coast Visitors Centre, Tathra Wharf to Waves, the pristine national parks and much more.
Unfortunately, in Bega the map could only identify the new regional hospital, the regional art gallery and Bega Cheese as attractions.
This indicates a virtual desert for tourism activities and infrastructure in Bega.
As a centre for our region, Bega should be like other towns in the Valley and aim to make the most of the increase in visitor numbers in our region.
As the map is a vision for 2030, why not include the fully restored Old Bega Hospital regional community centre, the Bega River Reserve and bike track, the kid's adventure playground and barbecue area at Kiss's Lagoon and the Ontrack outdoor entertainment venue.
As this infrastructure is mostly in place it should not be that difficult to have them fully functioning to provide not only valued assets for our community, but exciting and desirable tourist attractions for Bega and the region.
Perhaps our Member for Bega Andrew Constance could replace the fading impression of the new regional hospital that hangs in his office with an amended vision map of the region showing these exciting and valued opportunities.
Tim Whitaker
Bega
Hobbs corner
Hobbs corner Tathra, was named after the Hobbs Bemboka store owner who camped on that corner for many years.
To make camping more comfortable he built a community kitchen without council approval, right on that corner.
Council issued a direction to have the kitchen removed.
The direction was ignored and remained for many years.
Keith Beresford
Sydney
Question of costs
The first issue about Tony Allen’s visits to the Campbells is not what he said or how he behaved at the time, but whether he was welcome on their property.
A District Court judge found that “he bullied a woman (Ms Campbell) and intimidated her by acting in a bullying and overpowering manner over the phone”.
The second issue is whether Mr Allen should remain as a councillor after an investigation found that he had breached the local government code of conduct when he was mayor.
The third issue is whether the Bega Valley ratepayers were required to cover Mr Allen’s court costs and if so, should those costs be refunded by the former mayor due to his breach of the local government code of conduct.
Finally it will be interesting to see if the Director of Local Government will decide that the council needs to disclose the full recommendations of the investigator's report.
Bernard Lagarenne
Merimbula