Hervey Bay Gossip

The annual Hervey Bay Esplanade Festival kicks off from 10am on Saturday and there’ll be something for all the family.

As usual the festival will be spread along the Esplanade from Scarness to Torquay and there’s even a free bus if all that walking is too much for you.

Hervey Bay City Council have been busy adding a new feature to the joint bikeway/footpath on the Esplanade over the last few weeks.

Exercise stations have been appearing at regular intervals along the pathway. Each station is fitted with two pieces of equipment that are free for anyone to use. Instructions are provided on plaques adjacent to each piece of equipment.

These two photos were taken at two stations located near Aquavue at Torquay.

The view from the Hervey Bay Council Chambers

When the Hervey Bay Town Plan was released the week before last the Hervey Bay Gossip just had to add it’s 2 cents worth to the debate. Over the weekend Hervey Bay Councillor Sue Brooks took the time to add some comments to the piece.

Those comments are important and deserve their own entry here on the Gossip. Councillor Brooks makes some important points about the town plan and she also gives us an insight into what happens at council meetings.

I am but one Councillor in a group of eight. I firmly believe that Hervey Bay is threatened with over development especially and specifically high density development concentrated anywhere that provides a view of our Bay. Most obviously this is concentrated along our Esplanade.

I am sad to say that I am quite alone in my views. I repeatedly have voted against developments that breach our town plan guidelines but am consistently the only ‘no’ vote.

Yes I have supported the new Planning Scheme. Troubling as the extra height allowance is the alternative to supporting the new planning scheme was to leave the city with no planning scheme at all. The old scheme, even if it could have been extended past December 15th, was permitting more high density over a greater part of the city. I felt caught quite literally between a rock and a hard place.

The new scheme can now be amended. I have tried already to have the maximum height reduced back to the six storey limit and failed. (Cr McNeven and myself voted for this prior to adopting the scheme but received no support from any other Councillor).

The new scheme protects vegetation, recognises wetlands and water ways and has other features which make it superior to the old scheme.

I will continue to lobby as strongly as I can against high density tall buildings but feel quite powerless to effect change without support from my fellow Councillors.

Can I please ask members of the community who share my concerns about high density to lobby Councillors directly. I fear our Esplanade will become a tourist strip catering predominantly for tourists.

 

 

Ted looks like he’s been taking lessons from the John Howard School for Dealing With Difficult Questions.

Well the town plan for Hervey Bay has been approved and the buildings are going to rise higher in some parts of the town.

I can understand why some people are already feeling angry about the new plan and Ted Sorenson’s response on the television news last night really seemed to indicate that he couldn’t care less about what many people here in town think.

The comment from one councillor that all these high rise developments would include bars and cafes on their ground floors that the people of Hervey Bay could enjoy was just delusional. We already have bars and cafes we can and do enjoy – we don’t need more in places where the rents are going to be so high that normal people won’t want to pay the prices these places will have to charge.

Now let’s hear from those councillors who got elected on a platform of keeping development along the Esplanade under control.

 

Work finally began yesterday on removing the crane at the Peppers resort. The crane has dominated the Urangan and Hervey Bay skyline for quite some time and the removal has aroused considerable interest.

Even before the sun was fully up this morning residents were down at the site watching – and even filming – the work.

Removal of the crane has meant that The Esplanade is completely closed to traffic from Elizabeth Street down to the Urangan shops.

A drive along The Esplanade yesterday showed that the fears some people had that the increased cost of fuel would impact on tourists this Christmas and New Year Holidays were groundless.

All the caravan parks were full and many of the units and resorts along The Esplanade were exhibiting no vacancy signs.

As early as 7am a number of cafes were doing a roaring trade and one cafe owner that we spoke to reported that the last few days have been his busiest ever.

Ah the title takes me back to the days of my youth when Holden sin bins were all the rage but this is not about tarted up Holden panel vans.

This article is about Wicked Campers and if you’ve lived in Hervey Bay for more than five days then I’m sure that you will have seen at least one somewhere along The Esplanade.

Wicked Campers are actually an Australian wide company that caters for backpackers who want to arrive in style and with attitude.

You can read more about them right here on Aussie Motoring

The frightful looking mess on the foreshore at the end of Bideford Street, Torquay is set for completion by the middle of December. And then we have roadworks to look forward to.

Those roadworks will commence in February and are scheduled for completion in May.

Thanks to the civic mindedness and the generosity of the Hervey Bay Boat Club our local police now have two new vehicles to add to their fleet.

The Boat Club recently handed over two new 360cc Kawasaki quad bikes for the police to use in beach patrols and in the Esplanade precinct as well as along the Links Mobility Corridor.

Sunstate Motorcycles are also to be commended for providing maintenance sponsorship for the new bikes.

Well the mystery surrounding the work in the park opposite the intersection of Bideford Street and The Esplanade has finally been solved.

The Council were upgrading the storm water outfall and now we have a bright new eyesore to look at.

I suppose they are necessary but why do they have to be so prominent and why does an attractive beach like Torquay Beach have to be mutilated with two of these monstrosities?

Not only do they look incredibly ugly but they also obstruct people from walking up and down the beach.

I suppose we should not really be surprised but when this photo was being taken the workmen were engaged trying to cover up the ugly blot and that surely must be a labour of the utmost futility. One high tide and it will be uncovered.

I can’t help thinking that all we are doing when we add ugly lumps of concrete like this to the beachscape is destroying one of our most valuable assets.