BIG W isn’t coming to town, and I have to say I’m slightly disappointed.
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Especially considering the amount of noise we’ve heard about its pending arrival for the past year, and I have no doubt a lot of work went into the planning.
To have it end up being canned makes you wonder if it really was a financially driven decision, or was all that squeaking from councillors arguing with each other, and the heritage groups or whoever else felt the need to make noise about it, enough for Big W to say ‘stuff this’ let’s find somewhere else that really wants us.
The reason I am disappointed is a purely selfish one.
I’m not happy with shopping in Goulburn.
Affordable quality goods are getting harder to find in Goulburn.
We currently have two department stores to choose from, one is expensive and the other is just so cheap you may as well not bother going in.
The latter seems to have given up on stocking any brand names you’ve heard of, and has prices so cheap it makes you question how ethically they source their goods.
A forty dollar microwave can’t possibly be any good.
Can you really make a microwave for just forty dollars? Corners would have had to be cut in the making of it somewhere, and to the pay packet of the person manufacturing it.
See what I’m getting at? I was hoping that Big W would be that middle ground I was looking for, and it would have brought a few extra jobs to town as well.
However, my shopping woes are not the crux of my column today, the council is.
The year-long brouhaha about Big W, and its eventual collapse really brought it home for me.
My perception of the local council is not good, of course I write all this standing on the outside looking in, but I’m not the only one doing that.
I asked around and I hear the same thing from everyone, the council can’t make a solid decision on anything. This is further illustrated by recent revelations that the council is to be sued over another development proposal gone wrong.
Ratepayers will no doubt be watching the outcome of that case nervously.
As I start to open real estate catalogues and consider homes here, I find myself avoiding beautiful heritage style homes, because I am concerned that should I need to repair the home I will run into endless red tape from our local council.
I know that the council is responsible for a lot of good things, but I’ve been blinded to them.
So I ask the council what kind of growth are they really looking for, for Goulburn? Our population is growing and it’s obviously going to need supporting, isn’t being able to do so locally better? The last council election left us feeling hopeful for change, but it seems the status quo remained.