Page 4530 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
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At the time many people felt that the Black Mountain tower was an abomination. Some people still do, I am sure; but it falls down to a matter of judgment. Mr Kaine is appropriate and is right in saying that, as far as this development goes, it has met all requirements laid down by law. It then boils down, as I said, to the set of values which people have.
We have heard a lot of comment that the club should not be allowed to make a profit from turning a sporting lease, in effect, into a profit-making venture which will get the club into viability. The answer has been put by Mr Moore; that if they cannot make a go of the bowls club they should relinquish their lease and hand it back to the Government, and the Government can then determine what it will do with the site. What that would mean, of course, under the proposals and usage for that site, is that the site would immediately go to public auction. Instead of having 26 townhouses there, we would probably wind up with something like 40 because of the various issues involved with the development of the whole site.
I have also heard some absolute nonsense spoken about the heritage value of the Forrest bowls clubhouse. I wonder how many people in this place have actually been to the clubhouse and had a good close look at it. Just as people like Mr Moore, Mr Collaery, Mr Jensen and others claim to be experts in what is good in terms of planning and what is bad in terms of planning, I personally have as much entitlement to my opinion as to what is good in terms of heritage and what is not.
Frankly, the sooner the Forrest bowling club is knocked over the better, as far as I am concerned, and I make no apologies for stating that. It is an outmoded, inefficient building of the 1920s. Whilst some people might get a warm inner glow from looking at a building which is not suited to the needs of a modern establishment and thinking how much it attracts and adds to the supposed ethereal values of the ACT, I certainly do not. I will certainly shed no tears if and when the Forrest bowling club is knocked over.
I am sick and tired of hearing about how a community asset is going to be lost when and if this development goes ahead on the Forrest bowls site. I can tell you now that there is nothing community about the bowls club. Those who like to think of it as a community asset should try to go into the bowls club and throw a ball down the rink and see how community it is. It has never been a community asset. It has always belonged to a small select group of people and it is not there for general use by the community at weekends, or whatever, for whatever purpose. It is a private facility. Unless you are invited there, you cannot get in and use it. To say that it is a community asset which is being destroyed is, frankly, a lot of claptrap.
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