Breaking ranks

THREE Tenterfield councillors have slammed a controversial council decision to stop funding a local visitor centre.
Councillors voted six to four to stop funding the Tenterfield Visitor Information Centre, which was founded by the community, managed by a committee and supported by volunteers.
Councillors Don Forbes, Michael Petrie and Brian Murray voted to continue funding and wrote an email to the Southern Free Times expressing their disappointment.
They said that never before had the centre “been as important as it is now, and would be in the future, as the Tenterfield Bypass will encourage would-be visitors to keep on driving.”
The councillors also said ratepayers had a right to know about the demise of the centre.
“The community of the Tenterfield Shire are the true owners of the centre and are, therefore, entitled to have their say,” they wrote.
“It defies logic that six votes were able to decide the future of the centre, a community asset with a long and proud history.”
“We, the undersigned councillors, would like to thank the committee and volunteers of the centre and wish them well in the future, as in the last 12 months they have worked diligently for our community, under extreme conditions, while awaiting the axe to fall, eradicating the goodwill that has been built up over many years.”
Councillors Forbes, Petrie and Murray said a similar situation occurred in 2013, when a petition containing 400 signatures protested a council decision to not fund the centre.
They said the public vote was “totally rejected, ignored and even slighted as being of no importance.
They said ratepayers would now feel the brunt of the decision.
“When council takes control, costs will increase significantly from the amount of $30,000 requested for the Tenterfield Centre and will be borne by ratepayers as happens in Stanthorpe (about $167,000) and Glen Innes (about $1 million).”