Edgar Adams' Editorial

Sure there is quite a bit of retail development activity occurring with Australia’s supermarket giant, Woolworths and relative newcomer, Aldi buying up and developing everything they can get their hands on.

And, at last Gosford Council has given the green light to the long suffering property developer, Dino Seraglio’s Rapedo development at Terrigal.  We should see the first two buildings of six planned start construction by the middle of the year. Then we see the start of construction on the Bluetongue Brewery project at Warnervale.

After that all is very quiet.  There is no indication as to when Terrace Towers will start developing their Warner Business Park at Warnervale and as you will read in our story Warnervale Town Centre - will it ever be built?, we don’t believe anything will happen on the much vaunted Warnervale Town Centre.

The people of the Central Coast have been hoodwinked if they think that the State Government in particular and our two Councils have anything other than a political interest in the economic growth of our region. Right now both Gosford and Wyong Councils have never been so far apart in their regional thinking.  In their minds, as a region the Central Coast doesn’t exist – its Gosford and Wyong or Wyong and Gosford depending on where you live.

And while our Councils are playing ducks and drakes we have a Minister for the Central Coast who is more interested in what is happening in Sussex Street (Union Headquarters) than he is in our region. We see the result with developers and investors deserting our region in disgust.

Compare our plight with that of the Hunter. The region is thriving.  It is almost impossible to keep up with announcements coming from the State Government and the eleven councils that make up the region (see Hunter Business News in this issue).

Point One – The Central Coast has just two councils who can’t agree on anything.  The Hunter has eleven councils who work as a team. They may have their differences but overall their focus is on regional economic growth.  In Macquarie Street the Hunter is a formidable force.

Point Two – The Central Coast is represented by a Minister who is too busy to be bothered with it.  He may live here but in reality his mind is everywhere else.  In the Hunter, the Member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay is the Minister representing her region and she is passionate about the place.  She is across every issue that affects the region and works with the councils and business and industry for the good of the entire area. Oh, and she is a mighty effective Tourism Minister for our State as well.

The point about all this is that everyone on the Central Coast should be looking to take advantage of the opportunities that are being created next door – in the Hunter.

It is exactly two years before we go to the polls to elect a new State Government. Last month the Opposition Leader and his Cabinet were on the Coast to meet with some of the electorate to find out what they can do for the region.  What sort of problems we have – that sort of thing!

At last they have got around to developing some policies. They are calling it Planning for Prosperity – economic and fiscal priorities for NSW. One would have thought it would be called Saving us from Bankruptcy – getting the unions and bureaucrats out of our lives.

Edgar Adams
Editor

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