LOCAL town rivalry came off the football field and netball courts today and into the political arena as two Foster community groups went out of their way to undermine Korumburra’s bid to retain its visitor information centre.
At a public presentation session this morning, Wednesday, June 28, there were three submissions in favour of retaining the Korumburra info centre, at least until alternative promotional arrangements were in place.
But Foster Community Association President Lyn Atkinson, also representing the Foster Chamber of Commerce, thanked the shire council for the process and declared full support for the officer’s recommendation going forward to the council meeting this afternoon at 2pm.
The first point in the three-part recommendation calls for the closure of the information centre at Korumburra, as follows:
“That Council: 1. Close the Korumburra Visitor Information Centre by 31 July 2017 and continue to operate an accredited Visitor Information Centre at Foster. 2. Allocate $100k to develop a digital tourism strategy which targets service and growth of South Gippsland visitor economy. 3. Receive a future report which considers and adopts the digital tourism strategy.
Ms Atkinson even went so far as to suggest how the shire council might spend the $100,000 saving it was expecting to make out of the closure of the Korumburra centre.
Asked afterwards why her group had gone out of its way to dump on Korumburra’s attempts to retain its information centre, Ms Atkinson simply said her group supported the recommendation, understanding the need to spend the shire’s tourism budget more wisely, without specifically commenting on the closure of Korumburra.
Earlier, Korumburra Business Association President Noelene Cosson, spoke passionately in favour of retaining the Korumburra Visitor Information Centre.
“There are things that are half in place that could take the place of the visitor information centres in time but they are not in place yet and the branding and digital strategy are part of that,” Mrs Cosson said in answer to a question from Coastal Promontory Ward Councillor Jeremy Rich.
Mrs Cosson took the councillors through a search of their own website to find unexplained links to Prom Country Regional Tourism tucked away, saying there was no nexus between visiting South Gippsland and Prom Country.
Mrs Cosson said there was a fundamental breakdown in the shire’s branding of tourism locally which would need to be sorted out before it considered shutting down face-to-face tourism promotion.
She said information centre at Korumburra was poorly sign-posted and almost invisible to the passing trade.
Other presenters, including local business man David Amor and community stalwart Shirley Cowling reiterated that theme; Ms Cowling in particular encouraging the shire to train more volunteers to support the operation of the visitors centre at Korumburra.
Mr Amor said he feared the impact on Coal Creek if the visitor’s centre was closed.
None of the Korumburra speakers recommended the closure of the Foster Visitor Information Centre, on the contrary they said it was important to have tourism information at both main entrances to the South Gippsland or ‘Prom Country’ area.
Strzelecki Ward Councillor Lorraine Brunt indicated a thaw in council’s hard line on the closure of Korumburra’s info centre when she said at the end of today’s public presentations that there may be “some middle ground” for council to follow with relation to local tourism promotion. Watch this space.
Photos: Above Korumburra Business Association President Noelene Cosson at the South Gippsland Shire Council public presentation session today. Below, the Foster community groups have come out supporting the council recommendation, retaining their centre but closing Korumburra’s.
Both places should be closed and are a total waste of money. The money could be spent giving fee relief to local food businesses. Research now days is done on the Internet, we don’t need paid officials. As for throwing away $100k on some nebulous digital idea. It’s bonkers. You could do a digital profile for less than 10k. We have to stop wasting ratepayers money in this shire.
What an inflammatory headline! I disagree wholeheartedly. As a Foster resident and a shire volunteer at the gallery I have told everyone I can about the appalling fact that we should have to choose between the two. I’m suggesting to all my friends that we complain in writing to the local papers and wherever we can. If you take a look at the forms we were given to fill out there wasn’t a choice of keeping the two information centres open and it would, in my opinion, be ridiculous to close the Foster information centre due to the tourism aspect. People heading down to the prom and surrounds need information. I believe the shire has made a ludicrous decision that will impact the local business and tourism industries. Many people I’ve spoken to feel the same so take down your hate speech about rivalries coming off the football field and netball courts and direct your anger or, better still, constructive criticism to the shire. The forms were ill conceived and didn’t give constituents the opportunity to choose to keep both open which should have been an option.
Perhaps you would prefer not to have any rivals on the football or netball fields either but it would make for a pretty poor sporting competition.
This article is incorrect and is creating an artificial rivalry between local towns. The Foster Community Association supported one proposal presented by the Council which supported retaining an Information Centre in Foster. The submission and presentation focused on why an Information Centre should be retained in Foster. Each town had an opportunity to respond to the Council report. Perhaps the focus of the article should reflect the fact that the Council is looking for savings and that towns are having to fight to retain services. Please don’t try to create unnecessary tensions. We are all trying to do the best for our local towns.
I think this has been misrepresented. The Foster community is advocating for its VIC. It does not immediately follow that they wish to see the closure of the Korumburra VIC. They were responding to the 3 recommendations, as was the Korumburra community. I don’t think this is a helpful tone to introduce to an important issue.