Caulfield Park - update

At tonight's (tues) Council meeting i am pleased to report that Councillors voted for the following motion to end the proposal to run a commercial cafe at the conservatory in Caulfield Park.

9.3 Alternative Reccomendation
a/ that Council recognises the heritage value of the Caulfield Park Conservatory.

b/ that Council determines not to proceed with an Expression of Interest campaign for the Caulfield Park Conservatory

c/ that Council considers funds in the 2012/13 budget for the repair and full restoration of the Caulfield Park Conservatory

moved Pilling seconded Pennalluriack

Caulfield Park -commercialise or not?

On this Tuesday night's council meeting agenda there is an interesting item
regarding Caulfield Park and the envisaged use of the conservatory in the western section of the park as a commercially run cafe with seating for upto eighty people. See item 9.3 in Oct 11th agenda in links bottom right.

Like a range of other issues in our parks this has been an ongoing saga for a number of years now.

This has all come about primarily because of the need to repair and protect the facility as generally agreed by everyone - park users and Council alike.

What is not agreed is how to pay for these repairs- previous estimates by Council have been in the $150k range. That's what in my mind this is all about - seeing if Council can get someone else to pay for these repairs.

I feel this sets a poor precendent on how we manage our public parks- Council should just bite the bullet and repair the facility- The money spent on the whole cafe EOI process would be better spent directly on the conservatory.