Council hits back at new accommodation doubts
Orange City Council has hit back at concerns over proposals for two new accommodation outlets.
Following the announcement this week of two motel development applications investing $23.5 million in Orange, both the Chamber President and Brand Orange board member Mark Madigan and Brand Orange Executive Officer Rhonda Sear told local media what the Council should do with the applications.
"If (Orange City Council) do give consent to these applications, these DAs,... within the DA consent (they should ) firstly lift their sales marketing strategy in order to bring additional occupancy .. more occupancy to the town for them to sustain their development," Mark Madigan told ABC radio.
"And maybe also as well, as part of these developments a dollar figure is put off on the side to be utilised by the various tourism organisations, i.e. Brand Orange or Orange City Council in order to generate additional tourism to the town," he said.
Mayor John Davis is asking if the Orange Business Chamber and Brand Orange have misguided views on Council powers and what is good news for Orange.
These views included:
- Installing a levy on the motels for regional marketing as a condition of consent
- Requiring the developers to have regional marketing plans as a condition of consent
- Staggering the developments to protect existing accommodation
Orange Mayor John Davis OAM said it was appropriate to have a debate on what type of development the city should have, but it was ill-informed to suggest Council had a role in picking winners.
“It’s disappointing that two groups who should be supporting growth have taken a protectionist stance. These DAs need to stack up but a knee jerk reaction from the Chamber and Brand that would hinder growth is puzzling to say the least,” Cr Davis said.
Orange City Planning and Development Committee Chairman Cr Russell Turner said the proposals put forward by the Chamber and Brand were not only wrong but naïve.
“Doing what they suggest would actually breach National Competition Policy. Council can only assess development applications on their merits and competition is rightly not one of those. That doesn’t mean they should proceed without proper assessment but Council needs to consider relevant issues,” Cr Turner said.
Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee Chairman Cr Jeff Whitton said there were more than 1100 rooms in the Orange region and the 134 additional rooms proposed in the DAs should be seen in that context.
“At the recent regional tourism workshops hosted by Council and attended by more
than 100 tourism operators there was a strong sentiment of the need for more and a
greater variety of accommodation and this view was supported by Brand Orange at
those workshops. It is disappointing now that they are saying we don’t need more beds.
Their time would be better spent on filling beds rather than opposing new
opportunities,” Cr Whitton said.
“As a Council we are all about creating new jobs and new opportunities for the tourism
sector. If we had taken the view that we should stop growth in accommodation then De Russi would have been refused, the Templers Mill expansion would have been knocked back and we would have stopped the expansion of B and Bs. And the city would have
been poorer for it.”
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