www.awnw.com.au
Issue #206 – Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Albury Wodonga’s largest circulating newspaper
Band sets record straight After receiving a notice to vacate their Hovell Street premises, the Wodonga Citizens Band is telling their side of the story in a letter to you! FOR DETAILS TURN TO PAGE 9
Band gets boot By KRYSTEN MANUEL WODONGA Citizens Band (WCB) is lashing out at Wodonga Council after being given a formal notice to vacate on 3 October. The committee of Wodonga Citizens Band has written a letter to the community explaining they were not informed of changes to their tenure, speculating that council is systematically removing all not-for-profit organisations from central Wodonga in the name of commercial redevelopment, and asking for support in the building of a new not-for-profit arts and entertainment facility. The letter explains that originally, in 1966 the then Wodonga Council moved the WCB from Vermont Street to Crown Land in Hovell Street, having the land reserved in order to secure the tenure of the band. “Since the late 1990s to the present ... the Wodonga Council set about removing the security of tenure of WCB at the Hovell Street site,” it reads. “Wodonga City undertook the rezoning of the band hall site without specifically notifying the band or referencing the change in the formal amendment documentation. Indeed it didn’t come to the attention of the band until 2013. “In 2004 ... the then Labor State Government gazetted a revocation of the reserved land status of the site. Again the band was not informed. “Although the band did not know it, the apparent effect of the revocation of the reserved land status was to remove secu-
Ross Draper on the cornet at the WCB ‘Keep Our Band Alive’ Concert on Friday.
rity of tenure and to take away effective ownership or control of the fixed assets on the current band hall land.” Wodonga Council CEO Patience Harrington argues the band has been in the loop for over a decade. “Wodonga Council has been in contact with the WCB executive for a period spanning more than 10 years in which it has discussed the proposed redevelopment of Wodonga’s central business area, including rezoning and relocation options for the band,” she said. A response from the WCB said this contact was informal, with substantive and documented information and proposals limited and inadequate. Perhaps most importantly, the committee of WCB has suggested their eviction is part and parcel of a larger goal by Wodonga Council to push notfor-profit organisations away from central Wodonga to make room for more commercial redevelopment. “... it appears that Wodonga Council may have been systematically and methodically removing not-for-profit and other community groups out of the central activity area of Wodonga,” the Committee of WCB letter reads. “Wodonga Citizens Band is just another not-for-profit group that the council is seeking to evict from Crown Land and banish to the outskirts in the name of commercial redevelopment and revitalisation of the city centre.” Ms Harrington said that
since the original agreement was reached with the band in the 1960s, the city had changed significantly and grown at a rapid rate, with the current location of the WCB now forming part of the larger central business area. Finally, the WCB are calling for support for development of a new arts and entertainment facility run by an association of not-for-profit groups on a wholly recurrent cost self-sufficiency basis. “This facility will form the home of several community groups whose current locations are insecure, under threat or inadequate,” the letter from the WCB committee says. “The council has not been asked for a financial contribution to the project but has been asked to provide strategic planning and local political support. “Council has been unable to support the proposal as it finds difficulty in accepting or identifying a government land site within the central activity area of Wodonga that would be acceptable to council. “This seems extraordinary at a time when vast tracts of government land are being dealt with as part of the redevelopment post closure of the rail line. “Wodonga Citizens Band is simply asking for support from Wodonga City Council and the wider community to enable the band and its associated groups to develop a community not-forprofit arts and entertainment facility in the central activity area of Wodonga.”
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