WHY SHOULD YOU PAY FOR THE MARINA?
For over 20 years the community has been told that we will not have to pay for the marina. It was all going to be paid for from profits from land sales. Now that the funding model has fallen over, we are told the community will have to borrow at least $20m to build it. We may need to borrow up to $80m to complete it. The interest payments alone could be up to $4m p.a.
Council’s own figures show the Marina will create only 33 tourism related retail jobs and an average of only $500,000 tourism expenditure each year (Macroplan study, 2011)
The total cost of the Marina will be at least $140m. While Council is preparing to borrow funds for this, we are charging our children to use cold water pools and sports fields because Council cannot afford to maintain them.
Council cannot afford even basic services for our community. In recent years, Council has reduced mowing in suburban parks all across the City, except in Shell Cove, to once every 6-8 weeks in summer. In this year’s budget, Council allocated an extra $50,000 for maintenance of parks in Shell Cove. Other suburbs get less mowing but have to pay more for Shell Cove! On top of this, we subsidise the Links Shell Cove golf course by almost $400,000 each year. Council needs to get its priorities right and realise there is more to our city than just Shell Cove.
A residential subdivision in a coastal area near a major population centre will always make a profit for the developer. We could continue with the residential aspect of Shell Cove, and the commercial and retail, and the business park, which Council says will create 1000 jobs. This would make a profit to provide services to the rest of the city. We do not need to spend $140m on a marina which will be a constant drain on Council’s resources, as we pay to maintain it.
VOTE 1 FOR A ‘BACK TO BASICS’ COUNCIL
VOTE 1 FOR ALL OF THE CITY, NOT JUST SHELL COVE
VOTE 1 FOR PETER MORAN (GROUP G)
