Rodney Stevens

Wooli Street Hall won’t be sold off to fund a new Treelands Drive Community Centre at Yamba after Clarence Valley Council voted to write off $728,818 spent on designing a new centre and investigate varying the current design.
At council’s December 13 meeting, staff recommended council reaffirm support for design option A for construction of the Yamba Community Precinct project and endorse the proposed funding strategy Option.
Option A, to construct a new $14.5 million Treelands Drive Community Centre TDCC by endorsing the funding strategy would have required the status of Wooli Street Hall being changed from ‘community’ to ‘operational’, so it could then be sold for what council estimated to be $2.8 million.
In addition, council intended to use a $11.1 million Bushfire Local Economic Recovery grant to fund the TDCC construction, which they applied to have reallocated to the Clarence Valley Regional Aquatic Centre project at the November meeting.
Council had already spent $728,818 on design and consultancy for option A, which required demolition of the current TDCC.
The sale of the community asset that is Wooli Street Hall had been opposed by some Yamba residents and the Yamba Community Action Network, Yamba CAN.
In October and November, CVC held community engagement sessions on the issue in which 1,758 community members were engaged through online and face to face sessions.
A council survey of 196 people saw 105 vote for option A, to build a new TDCC, and 91 vote for a new build on the library and a minor renovation of the TDCC.
Cr Clancy said this is a contentious issue that has been dragging on for a long and in some respects, he’d like to go back to basics and start again.
“Option B to me is the only way to go because I’m not prepared to see the Treelands Drive centre demolished…we do need a new library and we do need to look at retaining Wooli Street,” he said.
Cr Debrah Novak thanked members of Yamba CAN who made deputations to council concerning the issue prior to the council meeting.
“At these times, for me personally, I can’t demolish a building that’s not that old,” she said.
“We need to be a bit more restrained in how we are spending our money…I feel there are some great outcomes to be had by looking after the Wooli Street Hall and building a new library and also having the Yamba Community Centre as well.”
Speaking against the motion, Cr Karen Toms said she would rather see nothing happen than option B (not proceeding with an entirely new centre and keeping Wooli Street Hall).
Cr Toms said the upgrade of the Treelands Drive Community Centre was part of councils strategic planning and first introduced to council by then Cr Tiley in 2006.
“Treelands Drive is not fit for purpose now, tizzying it up is not going to give our community a facility that is going to take it into future generations,” she said.
“It’s short-sighted thinking, it’s thinking about the money, we should be thinking about an investment in our community.
“I am extremely disappointed that we are going for a short-term vision which is inferior, it’s not going to last into the future…and we’re going to have a seven hundred thousand deficit because we’ve wasted all that money.”
Cr Jeff Smith said he applauded Cr Clancy’s motion to retain Wooli Street Hall as it is ‘an absolutely priceless asset that is community owned and is irreplaceable.’
Cr Allison Whaites said she was voted in to be a voice for the community and looking at the community engagement survey, of the 196 respondents, 105 said option A.
“By picking option B you are actually going against the community that did the survey,” she said.
Cr Bill Day said council needed to be responsible in how it spends money and option B would cost substantially less than option A.
Cr Steve Pickering said he could not support option B, which he said was ‘to investigate and do nothing’ with the construction of Treelands Drive, plus throw away $728,818 and keep a hall that’s not fit for purpose.
But Cr Greg Clancy moved an alternate motion to council staff recommendations, to retain Wooli Street Hall and investigate a contract variation with the current design option B, which was seconded by Cr Debrah Novak.
The motion that council: 1. Investigate a contract variation with the current design contract for the detailed design of Option B. 2. Allocate expenditure to date in design of Yamba Community Precinct (Option A) totalling $ 728,818 to the General Fund as a deficit and 3. Retain the Wooli Street Hall, was carried six votes to three, with councillors Steve Pickering, Karen Toms and Allison Whaites voting against.