Where is our fine City Square?

Where is our fine City Square?

Since 1952 the Parks and Playgrounds Movement have watched and supported the establishment of Civic Park. The enlarged park was proposed as a feature of the 1952 County planning scheme and the guiding vision was for a fine Civic Square as a gracious setting for important public buildings.

Our Councillors have again fumbled the task and new start is needed. To implement that vision requires an even handed Council with a clear process and meaningful public participation.

Overstating the fig risk to escape public input and trigger the Roads Act was a mistake that created dissension and has ultimately left Laman Street naked and without shade, shelter or beauty.

That mistake could not corrected by belligerence or a contingent of police. What was needed was an independent expert to check Council’s calculations and assumptions and for council to get on with preparing and adopting an official landscape plan.

We as a city are now left the poorer and our fine City Square and Cultural Precinct is still just a vision.

Doug Lithgow