A decade or so ago Wollongong Council discovered a derelict farmhouse adjacent to the Whytes Gully landfill. Amid great excitement, plans were announced to restore this property and create the Wollongong Waste, Education and Visitors centre on site.
Half a million dollars of ratepayers funds were spent restoring that farmhouse,renamed " Glengarry Cottage - and for years it has served the purpose of educating the public on waste minimization, recycling, the use of worm farms and other methods of waste processing - and now it is to be abandoned.
For some inscrutable reason the council has decided to close this centre - and move the Waste, Education and Visitors centre - to the Wollongong Botanical Gardens.
Now common sense gives a clear message that anything to do with waste reduction is more likely to be a success if it can tap into the stream of people who are going past it's door with rubbish to dump.
The Botanic Gardens are at the other end of town, and let us hope that the citizens are not going there to dispose of household waste.
It seems just another of these crazy schemes that council planners come up with from time to time, usually on the basis that any sort of change can be sheeted home as a form of " progress ".
So - what happens to " Glengarry Cottage " and the half million dollars of ratepayers money spent to renovate it ?
Left vacant in such a remote setting it will become a target for vandals, or at best it might become home for squatters.
Perhaps those who made this decision might like to explain the rationale to the long suffering ratepayers of this city !
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