Gosford Council Candidates 2012

The 2012 Gosford City Council elections are just over a month away, and the field is more open than usual with four of the outgoing councillors not standing again. These are interesting times as is often said in politics.

The recent departure of the General Manager Peter Wilson, the forthcoming departure of Terry Thirlwell, Director of Community Services and Organisational Development, some shuffling of chairs in the Planning Department and other changes in Council staffing, point to this as being one of the few moments in local affairs when some changes might be possible, in the direction taken by elected representatives, and the culture within the administrative branch. Many hope this to be the case.

On The Gosford Times blog we will try to provide as much information as possible in the lead-up to the election on the 8th of September, including candidate’s policies and party publicity.

Local newspaper coverage in the past has been less than satisfactory in bringing information needed to make an informed choice, particularly in regard to minor groups and independents. Consequently we invite those who so wish to send material for posting and, within the usual constraints, we will publish same.

To start with, the new grouping of independents consisting of Peter Freewater, Gary Jackson, Ian Sutton, Jake Cassar, Ingrid Hasler, Nikki Freeburn, David Benwell, David Leggett and Kay Williams.

Major Policies of the Central Coast Alliance (From their website)


The Central Coast Alliance Candidates are committed to giving the community a voice, connecting the community, the revitalisation of Gosford CBD, investment in infrastructure and sustainable resource management.

Giving the community a voice - We stand for open, honest governance and we want to ensure the community is well connected and their voices are not only heard bur their values directly influence the actions of Council. This means real consultation that educates and informs so as to create a level playing field for input into Council's decision-making processes.

Connecting Community - We'll be involving local business in community development, supporting opportunities for Men's Sheds, Community Gardens and other social networks that bring our seniors and youth together to promote harmony and respect in our community. We see our schools as focal points for the community and opportunities for us to engage in a variety of community based projects. We will be supporting existing community based groups such as sporting clubs, RSL's, progress associations, Surf Life Saving, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Masonic groups Scouts, Guides, musical and theatrical societies, etc. These community groups that are usually made up of selfless volunteers often form the backbone of community and are the glue that can bind us together for the prosperity of all. We will be engaging with these groups and looking for opportunities to add value to the important contributions they already make.

Revitalisation of Gosford CBD - We will revitalise Gosford and see the city return to the thriving metropolis it once was. The waterfront can be developed to promote tourism without the loss of community access and amenity. There has always been a strong interest in a marina development and we will allow this to happen. We will provide the incentives for more retail shops, live entertainment venues and restaurants around the marina. We will encourage a variety of accommodation developments including backpackers to bring visitors of all ages. We will provide incentives for a range of tourism ventures across the greater Gosford region. We have a great wealth of natural and cultural heritage that can be used to make Gosford a hub for both international visitors and weekenders from Sydney and Newcastle. We will bring back Old Sydney Town or if that's not entirely possible we can create something very similar right in the heart of Gosford, perhaps with a maritime theme. We will have historic walks that celebrate our rich colonial beginnings and our indigenous past. We will support festivals like the Flora Festival, the Oyster Festival, music and multicultural festivals. We will bring people to our parks for open-air markets and carnivals. With our beautiful waterways and forests, Gosford is primed for a range of passive or adventure style eco-tourism attractions and we will provide seed funding to see local initiatives get started. We want to make Gosford a vibrant place where young and old want to be and where jobs for our kids can be sustained long into the future.

Investment in Infrastructure - Gosford Council has billions of dollars in liquid assets. We are not in debt, we are not 'cash strapped'; we have billions available in cash investments that can be drawn upon at short notice. This is our money that is supposed to be spent on fixing roads, curb and guttering and other essential services. We will access this money and reinvest it in these essential community services. In doing so we will create other employment opportunities. We will support local businesses and smarten up our streetscapes. We will provide confidence for investors and developers and support these initiatives with the road networks and the other vital services that Councils are supposed to provide. Yes, we have to spend a little money to make money, but we will do it prudently with sound economic advice from financial experts. We will look to Wyong Council for further opportunities to share services and reduce the costs to both Councils.

Sustainable Natural Resource Management - We will ensure that our wildlife reserves and waterways are protected for the economic and social benefits they provide and ensure they remain intact for the continued prosperity of future generations. This will be achieved by the appropriate planning controls and tougher legislation. We will refuse development consent that threatens rare or endangered species and will lobby State Government to stop inappropriate mining on the Central Coast. We will protect our water supply, our farms and our community from the mining industries and excessive extraction of our ground water.


Ed.
A statement incorporating the agenda’s of 10 independents will always be general and lack details about specific measures to be pursued to achieve the outcomes outlined.

It is good to see recognition of the needs of the farming community of the Mangrove Mountain Districts, the importance of a strong and connected community with REAL engagement in direction setting, and the significance of heritage and identity as a foundation for economic vitality.
However when reading their plans for a revitalised, vibrant, thriving Gosford metropolis (one assumes no irony intended) I felt a lack of coherence, due perhaps from the Alliance wanting to meet some of the objectives of the unsatisfactory Waterfront proposal as well as a plethora of heritage and other desires of the community ignored by the current plan.
Tourism, festivals, theme parks, sport and other entertainments and diversions are frequently trotted out as solutions to everything, but only a diverse productive local base will provide sustainability.
One would like to see more recognition of cultural production as a core factor in building a city.
Perhaps more detail will be found in statements by individual candidates, and clarified as the campaign progresses, however it is encouraging to see the emergence of a collective campaign with policies that would give new life to Council.
 

The Golden Egg

The Broadwater

From the school playground, a vista of open water, expansive sky, green bushland horizons and space to run. All a constant flux of wind, tide and weather. What an ideal environment for our future citizens – transcendent and inspiring.

Then I see full-page advertisements in the Express spruiking a plan to take all this away from the kids and the common people for private profit. A plan fervently opposed by a large number of residents. How can this be?

The answer should not be surprising. The terms of reference set by Gosford Council when beginning the process to invigorate the town centre (a good idea), always meant that profit driven corporate development would be the outcome. Other values would be squeezed in only where they didn’t conflict with the property development model or quarantined high value development sites, hence the disregard for the old School of Arts Building, the War Memorial park and the environmental heritage of the Broadwater.

We shouldn’t blame the Councillors, business people and bureaucrats. They are just doing what they know. They have not been educated in aesthetics and well being, the psychology of space and place, they do not have a feeling for how community capital imbedded in the commons translates into economic benefit. While they might protest that this is not the case, their actions say otherwise.

Perhaps they should visit the Gosford City Library and read the old newspapers. For over 100 years Gosford has been described as a sleepy hollow needing some kind of stimulus to bring it to life and to fulfil the promise of its beautiful setting. Then, as now, all strategies have been based on business development together with tourism.
 
Is this where we came in?
 

 Don't kill the Goose!

All this is not to say that corporate development does not have a valuable role to play, but sometimes the corporate “cart”, with its free load of civic leaders, runs over the “horse”.

Stage One is a gamble by those with nothing to loose. They are betting with public land and community assets (our taxes), at very long odds (see form guide) to try to get a big win.

With an election looming it is not surprising that no one wants to be seen as not supporting “improvement”, in whatever guise.

The application submitted to the Minister for Planning for State Significance Site status, from the Central Coast Regional Development Corporation, is big on rhetoric (“diverse and vibrant land water interface” – what ever that might mean) with no argument about any certain process whereby the proposed development will result in the outcomes promised. It is a document of faith and hope (like gambling). Charity comes in a distant third ­– like Father Riley’s Horse carrying the wishes of the common people.*

*However in Paterson’s poem of that name, the horse wins.

The  Gosford Times on 1 September 1911 stated:

The Times congratulates the Council upon its firm intention to keep hold of all the water frontage reserves in trust for the people.
These areas must never be parted with, and no Council should have the power, were they ever so inclined, to part with the People’s heritage.
 

And also in September 1911:

The Peoples Reserves.

To the Editor

Sir, I was glad to see by your report of last meeting that the Shire Council intends to preserve the reserves for the use of the public. Particularly should this apply to the reservations along the foreshores and river frontages. I quite agree with some of the Councillors that the Council should not have the power to trade away the peoples birthright, even were they so inclined, but apparently there are not many Esaus in the Erina Council, and I don’t think they would be hard to convert when they put on the considering cap and remembered that every public man’s policy should be the greatest good for the greatest number. – Yours, &c.  ORION

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. 
Leonardo da Vinci.

“You get what you accept.”  Chris Holstein (when Mayor of Gosford City Council).

Gosford's Challenge

Many stories and rumours abound regarding changes that might be happening in Gosford. Now an announcement has been made.
The following is from the Gosford Challenge email newsletter.

"STRATEGIC DESIGN PARTNER NAMED:
COX ARCHITECTS"

"The need for the Strategic Design Partner to be able to engage and listen to our community
was a key requirement in the evaluation process. Within the ‘commercial in confidence’
nature of the evaluation, the process was carefully designed to allow ‘real people’ to be
present for the contenders to talk to, elicit information from and demonstrate that this
information would indeed be used in their responses. Gosford people, representing many
sectors, kindly gave their time to the selection workshops."

For many people who had expressed an interest in contributing to the process, the identity of the 'real people', and the method by which they were appointed, remains a mystery and a cause for concern.

How will it be possible to think outside the box when the self-selected 'real people' are the box.

The real challenge for Gosford might be to break with its traditional secrecy, division and self interested development and let the real people speak.

While there are some who will take exception to the descriptions of divisiveness, developmental self interest, lack of transparency in processes and disfunctional communications being aired, it is hard to find many who will deny the reality of the situation – except those who are committed to talking up the positive.

And the positives are a there too, but the challenge remains and must be acknowledged and redressed if Gosford's potential is to become a reality.

Meanwhile, for the 'real people', it is , as our Mayor Chris Holstein recently commented "you get what you accept".

Greening the 'green'

Imagine the Imperial Centre and Town Centre shopping complex rooves becoming parkland (with a vertical garden on the Woolworth's red brick wall), more than tripling the Kibble Park area and putting Gosford in the vanguard of climate change design.

'Parkland' from Rumbalara Reserve

Decision-makers in Canada "have gotten the message, and green roof design has risen to the occasion. Case in point: the new Vancouver Convention Centre, a major civic project which officially opened this past weekend, boasts the largest non-industrial roof in North America.

The six-acre rooftop garden is crafted as a habitat for the 400,000 native plants and grasses growing there, as well as for birds and bugs (it houses hives for 60,000 bees).


The building, designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects, in collaboration with Vancouver firms MCM and DA, is expected to achieve LEED Gold designation and incorporates significant green building technologies."

And so it goes

If at first

"Mr. Jas Kibble is having the waterway through his property in Mann street straightened, which when finished will add considerably to the appearance and value of the land."

From The Gosford Times 27th. July 1900

And so it goes.

What will be revealed?

Residents had an opportunity to comment on Council’s Kibble Park Master Plan, but it is not known if any changes were made, or if so, what. Council did say “thank you” though.

It is puzzling why action is being taken now when the Gosford Challenge plan for the CBD is not due until June. Indeed why the RTA has spent so much on the intersection at the waterfront when any worthwhile plan for that area from the Gosford Challenge would have to relocate the road away from the water.
While on the subject of integrated planning and coordination, what became of the Cultural Spaces and Places Report stage 2 commissioned by Council from the consultants?

And so it goes.

Renewal

Report
"Jennifer Guerra reports, artists in Detroit are buying up foreclosed properties and turning them into cultural havens. In the crumbling Motor City, Mitch and Gina Cope have been purchasing ailing properties at rock-bottom prices, and are encouraging other artists to do the same.

That part isn't shocking; rather, it was just a matter of time until a really good example showed up. Artist communities are known for reinventing downtrodden neighborhoods the world over; in fact, the phenomenon of artists-come-in, neighborhood-becomes-hot, prices-go-up, artists-forced-out is so familiar now that what's happening in Detroit can be seen as something like the larval stage of neighborhood development. But Guerra uncovered a development that hadn't even occurred to me:

Then [Mitch and Gina Cope] set their sights on the foreclosed house down the street — a working class, wood frame, single family house that was listed for sale for $1,900. The house had been trashed by scrappers who stole everything, including the copper plumbing, radiators and electrical lines. Still, they decided to buy it and turn it into what Cope calls the "Power House Project."
"Our idea — instead of putting it all back and connecting to the grid, we wanted to keep it off the grid and get enough solar and wind turbines and batteries to power this house and power the next-door house," [Mitch] Cope says.
Although it is small consolation in the face of overwhelming economic strife in Detroit and elsewhere as the foreclosure crisis continues, this story gave me a real feeling of hope and renewal. To me, this example and other corresponding cases – like the artist-driven re-imaginings of shopping malls and big box stores seems symbolic of an even larger cultural shift. The arts community isn't just moving into one downtrodden urban neighborhood; rather, they're taking on the ruins of the unsustainable. They're taking on big box stores, shopping malls, and grid-connected homes in the car capitol of North America. And they're not just creating new art. They're seizing the opportunity to turn old shells of buildings into independent, renewable energy-powered, 21st century-ready spaces.

Thinking inside the Square

One's hopes for the Gosford Challenge's renewal of Gosford town centre were confounded by the announced call for a new cafe operator to replace the old one in Kibble Park.

"The café/restaurant boasts a unique location; having a northerly aspect overlooking the central park (Kibble Park) of Gosford utilised for passive recreation. The site is adjacent to the main shopping precinct of Gosford amongst the central business district and is supported by car parking and other public amenities in close proximity.
Responses are invited from proponents with the capability, vision and relevant experience to establish the Kibble Park café/restaurant at Gosford."

Somehow it seems that an opportunity, one of the few going, is being lost, when there are so many civic functions and cultural amenities not accommodated in the heart of town.

Replacing one cafe with another, is hardly thinking outside the square, and is probably putting the cart before the horse, or simply putting the cart with no horse. In Texas there is a 'one horse town' with interesting attitudes.

Henry Kendall

We received a message recently responding to the Kendall’s Rock post. It contained an image of a ‘newspaper’ clipping from the 1930’s showing Joe Fagan standing beside the rock on which Henry Kendall and his companions, is supposed to have engraved his initials. It would appear to be a copy of the photograph from the Keith Compton collection also reproduced in The Fagans, the Cottage and Kendall published by the Brisbane Water Historical Society.


Early in the 20th Century, the ‘rock pool in the glen’, with its waterfall, was a place to visit and enjoy, and it is a tragedy that it has been treated with such disrespect and neglect recently.
I have been informed that it is now inaccessible, and that the rock itself had to be protected by a mesh fence to prevent others ‘stooping to trace their names upon a stone’. One man’s graffiti tag is …etc.

And now:


More images

Whats the BIG IDEA!?

The following instructions were presented at the Idea Exchange referred to in the last post.

"In the spirit of all those ‘big thing’, town branding initiatives (big banana, prawn, merino etc.), it is proposed to erect a Big Idea in Gosford.

An idea, no matter how large, being immaterial, can be inserted into the urban fabric at a cost acceptable to even the most conservative local government agency, and no planning permission is needed.

We are asking for your help in selecting a site for the BIG IDEA.

We suggest consideration of a position so that the new ‘big idea’ will be between the viewer and an existing bad idea, object or building etc.

The ‘big idea’ will be transparent, of course, so we expect there will be no quibbles on aesthetic ground, but once it is in place the view will never be the same again.

Place a green ‘dot’ on the map where you would like to see the BIG IDEA in Gosford.

Results.

The majority of sites suggested were on the western and southern sides of the stadium, although one prominent local councillor nominated the western side of the Olympic Pool.

Big Idea for Gosford

In the spirit of the big banana, merino etc., you are being asked for your help in siting a 'big thing' idea in Gosford as a way of boosting the town's identity and tourism.

To help with your input, a map has been provided at the IDEA EXCHANGE BUREAU, level 1, Town Centre Shopping Complex, Gosford, until the 26th of January.

A pedestrian year

Happy New Year!

2009 brings hope for new things in the quest to redress some of the town's problems and fulfill its potential. We should see some outcomes in the Gosford Challenge process and it would be nice to think that the people steering the planning are prepared to think outside the usual developer oriented approach.


A couple of graphic comments, and a thought about pedestrian oriented initiatives for urban revival from Jan Gehl. (Think Mann Street between Erina and Donnison Streets)

Mr. Gehl’s core message remains so simple it sounds almost like a proverb. It goes like this: “Cultures and climates differ all over the world, but people are the same. They will gather in public if you give them a good place to do it.”
Urban sustainability rarely seems so straightforward, ensnarled as it is in thorny issues of land use and energy consumption, housing prices and unemployment rates, roads and transit lines, density and sprawl. In many of the world’s cities, however – North American cities in particular – there might be no single problem that encompasses them all as fully as the decision made after World War II to give top priority to the automobile in every urban quarter and under essentially every circumstance. And as Mr. Gehl’s clients are learning, there is no more economical or efficient way to begin sorting out this knot of problems than to simply restore people to their rightful place above cars in the urban hierarchy.

The full text of the article can be found here.

Passing Reminiscences

From the Gosford Times. 22nd of December 1899

Passing Reminiscences

(By Nettle)

What was Gosford like then?
Why a lot better than it is now; more money and less people to share it among. We got something like a price for sticks then, when we loaded the ketches and schooners, till they were as low as it was safe for them to swim to Sydney, with sawn timber or shingles. Then it was no distance to go for it. Why, bless your heart, we had only to go round the back of the mountain at the back of East Gosford and there you could cut for twelve months without shifting camp. Besides there was always two or three pairs of sawyers within cooee, so that when supper was over we would gather round and some rattling yarns were told; stories of the old hands who had to rough it in real earnest. They must have had real grit in them, for they had nothing of what you call luxury. They had corn beef, flour, corn meal and tea and sugar, that’s all – except rum – and they could stand it; their stomachs were as tough as their hides; and when I was a boy all the disputes among mates were drowned in a tot of grog on pay day. Then I heard father say as how the blacks were a great nuisance, not savage, but regular sneak thieves. You could not keep a fowl for them. Why, they would get a fish hook and a grain of corn and a bit of string and fish for the fowls while there was one left. Then of course we didn’t spin yarns all the time. We went down to Venteman’s (?) pub sometimes and had a high old time. But those good old times have gone, and I find it very hard to drop into these new fangled ways that people have today. Most of the old hands have gone too, and most of my old mates have been dead years and years now, and some of them as good men as ever looked through a tumbler. But those good old days suited us. The youngsters wanted the pace a bit faster; so they made it to suit themselves, and we old chaps had to stand aside. But what a day we had when the first steamer came. Why many of us had never seen a steamer before, and we took a few glasses of grog before we could understand how the old tub went without sails. Then came the Black Swan and the Alchemist and the Pelican and all the rest of later days. But what took my breath away altogether was to hear of the railway coming to Gosford. It seemed to break up all the old ideas. Fresh people came to the district; they cut the land up into little bits and called them town lots, away out in the bush where you want a brush hook and a warrant to find them. And then they elected Harry Wheeler Mayor and incorporated the town, and do you know that they kick up a row if you turn your horse or cow out to feed on the street. Bye the bye they are talking of building baths for the people to wash themselves in. Why in my time we just peeled off and tumbled in anywhere. But they seem to be making a different place of it altogether; they are building smart houses to coax the City folk here. But we don’t like to see them gong too fast and we steady these young people of ours as well as we can, but there will have to be a few respectable funerals in Gosford before they have it all their own way. But perhaps it might be best after all, for we old hands must soon pass in our checks. Then it won’t make any odds to it. But I like to think of those dear old days when we had to work well, and got well paid for it.

GOSFORD CHALLENGE

A Tip for tomorrow's race. A late entry, Gosford Challenge. An outsider who has had many starts without success, but has caught the eye of some prominent racing indentities.

“The Gosford Challenge is a comprehensive masterplanning process that will design and renew the City Centre. The Project Sponsors, Council and the Department of Lands (Lands), seek a Design Partner to prepare, design and implement the masterplanning process and a Development Partner(s) with the capacity to deliver catalyst projects involving public land.”
The proposed partner selection process, has been developed in consultation with the William Kerr Company... (and) does not fully conform to the general Local Government Act, Tender Regulations.

The Gosford Challenge selection process for the Design Partner and Development Partner(s) will commence with the release of the Request for Proposal on the 5 November 2008.
(Extracts from MATTER SUBMITTED BY THE DIRECTOR - CITY CENTRE DEVELOPMENT
GOSFORD CHALLENGE SELECTION PROCESS, Gosford City Council)

A disconcerting aspect of the Challenge is the apparent blind following of the William Kerr model from Coburg and the overriding of Tender Regulations. There would seem to be too great an opportunity for some parties to be given the inside running.
Perhaps a more radical planning vision is needed for Gosford to be at the forefront of change and innovation, something that could profitably be embraced as an aspiration, and perhaps should be, in the 21st Century.

Meanwhile in the 19th Century Gosford’s Challenge was much as it is today.
From the Gosford Times, 10th November 1899:

Mr Jas, Kibble, who recently purchased a number of allotments in the Alison estate in Gosford, is having some fenced preparatory to further improvements being effected. It is a pity that owners of other vacant blocks, which are a public eyesore, would not follow Mr. Kibble’s example.

May Acquire School Land

Interesting item from the Gosford Times past, in light of the ongoing discussions about the future of the centre of Gosford.

29th August 1950

May Acquire School Land
Acquisition of an area of land at present occupied by the Gosford Primary School will be the objective of a Gosford Shire Council committee which was appointed yesterday.
The Council had been asked by the Education Department for an area of land near the new school site at Gosford through which Baker Street will pass if it is extended south.
Prove an asset
The committee consists of the B riding representatives (Crs Downes, Chambers and Parsons) and Cr W.B.Grahame.
They will consider handing over the baker Street extension in return for the school area.
It was stated that the school ground would provide the council with an asset which could be exploited as a business proposition similar to the Kibble Estate.

Kibble Park Plans

You will be aware of the invitation to comment on plans for the improvement of Kibble Park.
If you have not done so, and think it will help, check the plan at the council website and act quickly.

The following is a summary of one response that will be sent.

Eliza Street Closure.
I fully support he closing of Eliza Street and consider that doing so is essential to any redesign of Kibble Park. While local shopkeepers might be concerned about loss of parking adversely affecting trade, in reality the number of spaces lost would be insignificant for Gosford as a whole, and the resulting improvement to the park as an amenity, and an attraction, would more than compensate. Parking should be last, not first, priority in urban design according to leading contemporary thinking, particularly given coming changes in transport due to climate change pressures. As it is, there is rarely parking space to be had in Eliza Street at busy times.
Eliza Street as it is destroys the parks major attribute as a place of repose and relaxation. In fact the car park in the Master Plan, if not removed altogether cold be reduced in dimension to limit the amount of paved surface intruding into the park. An argument could be made to confine it to only handicapped and ‘pram’ parking to service the library. Gosford’s parking problems will not be solved by keeping half a dozen parking places in the park, whereas the park, if well designed, will considerably enhance the attractiveness of the town.

Kibble Creek
Another beneficial aspect of the Master Plan is the celebration of the original creek with its meandering water feature reminiscent of the original stream. This is important in terms of historical identity and recognises the natura flow and form of the land. Its positioning is dealt with later in these comments.

Playground.
A children’s playground is an excellent addition to the park. However if built in the position indicated on the draft Master Plan it would dominate the park’s ambience to too greater an extent, and together with the car park would still essentially bisect the park and so undermine the open space quality that people like.
A more sympathetic location for it would be where the proposed water feature is indicated on the plan.
As the parent of a two year old child, I would find the location near William Plaza a more comfortable place as the Plaza would extend the sense of space around the playground.


Entrance and egress. (Creating an initial impression).
The entrance from William Plaza would work well with the playground on the left and a path leading ‘upstream’.
Access from the corner of Henry parry Drive and William Street fails now due to a barrier of palm trees, but would work well with them removed. The eye would then be drawn into the park to a ‘feature’ (perhaps a planting with strong verticals rather than the ‘sculpture’)

Moving the taxi stand towards William Plaza and closing Eliza Street, would improve the entrance from The Imperial Centre, which at present is a nightmare of cars, smokers, taxies and people waiting for transport. Perhaps taxis could wait in Mortimer lane with two pick-up and set-down spaces in William Street west of the Shopping Centre entrance.

If a car parking area is retained near the Library, access from Donnison Street will fail on aesthetic grounds.

More thought needs to be given to the points of transition to give Gosford’s central park a clear identity. Visitors need to discover an example of civic aspiration, not a ‘backyard’.

Kibble Café.
The Kibble Café is a problem for the park. It is poorly patronised and its training function does not integrate with public space requirements. Perhaps it would be better to move the service industry training to one of the many empty shops in Gosford. If a food outlet is required in addition to those already in the vicinity, an example of one that is well patronised can be found in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney where good quality takeaway food can be eaten outdoors.
The existing facility would be better utilized for functions that add to the ambience of the park and entail activities that would increase the types of usage. In particular, uses that would reflect a change in thinking towards knowledge and creative industries as being central to establishing economic viability in emerging economies globally. The Cultural Spaces and Places Report, currently in stage two with council, and the Cultural Plan identify two possible options.

1. Contemporary Art Resource Centre. This is a clearly identified priority for the CBD.
2. An extension to the Library to house the local studies collection, including space for displays of historical documents and images.

Both would function interactively with other park uses for regular activities and special events, as well as attract tourists.
The building could also incorporate an ‘urban screen’.

Library.
People understand the language of public space in terms of central park, civic square, town common, village green etc. and have associations evoked by those concepts. These reflect a need that people feel in Gosford which has no town hall, meeting rooms and places for common activities and civic assemblies.

In this regard I believe that Kibble Park would benefit from re-orienting the Library so that the main entrance was from the park. Incorporating the library more fully in the plan would be a positive measure, not withstanding its uncertain future, as it symbolically places culture and learning at the heart of the town, which is struggling to define itself.

I would suggest that it be re-oriented so that the entrance was on ground level in Kibble Park. At present the ‘back’ of the library is dead space and the entrance from Donnison St. is unattractive, and feels ungenerous. Lines of approach through the park would add both to a sense of active presence for the library and inclusion with the life of the park.

Central path.
While this might work in larger parks, such as Hyde Park in Sydney, the scale of Kibble Park does not suit such rigid geometry. While it would be useful in establishing unity in design and creating lines of passage, in the Master Plan the central line does not link items of significance. The path in Hyde Park, as an example, links the Archibald Fountain and the War Memorial, in Kibble Park the path links the unknown sculpture with an empty seating space.
Unless there is a clear vision for the sculpture, perhaps it would be better as a planting (Gymea Lilies?). A feature in that vicinity could be useful, particularly if it lifted the gaze.

Rather than a straight path, perhaps consideration could be given to a meandering path, echoing the stream and leading past or near the water feature.

Water Feature and Fountain.
Moving the fountain, with its 1970s brown bathroom tile surround, and replacing it with a different water feature is a good aspect of the plan.
Perhaps rather than relocating it in the park, it could be installed as a static sculpture on the forecourt of the Council building in Mann Street. This would enhance the Council building, which at the moment is uninviting, and the styles would be compatible. The theme of the fountain (family) would be appropriate to Council’s public relations objectives, as would a gesture to culture. Importantly Kibble Park would be less cluttered.

If the playground could to be located closer to the William Plaza/Mortimer lane corner, an ideal site for the water feature would be close to the site of the old Gosford wells. This would place it in an historically significant location and situate water, with its metaphoric links to life, centrally in the park in the heart of Gosford.

Consideration should also be given to the aesthetic quality of the water feature so that it could be of iconic significance for the town rather than just another suburban public space design element. An international sculpture/design competition would be a good way forward to achieve results as well as be good promotion for the town.

Exercise stations.
On a negative note, the inclusion of exercise stations is unnecessary and counterproductive.
They will entail maintenance and repair from vandalism as well as increase the risk of accidents. While the provision of these facilities on Council land is to be encouraged, perhaps it would be more practical to locate them at the waterfront alongside the walking/cycling/jogging track where they could be integrated with other exercise regimes.
As a gym member and exerciser, I think that after an initial burst of activity, the equipment would be under utilised and become a hangout for unenergetic youths. In addition, people using exercise equipment want a place to shower and change, and these are not included in the plan.
Further, they add unnecessarily to a sense of clutter.

Furniture.
The addition of more benches and tables is good, but care must be taken to ensure they are horizontal, unlike the bizarrely sloping picnic tables now installed.

William Street.
Retaining the covered wisteria walkway along William Street would be preferable to the all weather sails proposed.
The living wisteria is better ecologically and it provides a usage niche on a different and more intimate psychological scale to the rest of the park. Also it softens the ugliness of the Woolworth’s/Imperial Centre brick wall.

Traffic.
Drivers do not respect the shared road concept, and crossing to the park is hazardous even for able-bodied people. Perhaps extending the one-way system in Mortimer lane as far as the eastern end of the present Eliza Street intersection would help. If any parking must be kept in Eliza Street near the library, perhaps it could be restricted to ‘pram’ and ‘handicapped’ vehicles.

Bandstand.
This would be of possible use if well designed, but should be of low priority, with potential vandalism issues.
I would be concerned about more humps in the ground when the natural slope from Donnison Street could be used (exercise stations deleted). I also consider that there would be advantages in moving the stream closer to the diagonal path that runs from the corner of Donnison and Henry parry Drive to where the underground stream is now. The path would then parallel the stream through the centre of the park passing to the south of the water feature (old Gosford wells).

Overall.
The overall impression of the Kibble Park Master Plan is of unnecessary clutter despite a simplifying intention indicated by the closure of Eliza Street and the central walkway ‘spine’.
Local government plans often seem to try to please everyone (parents, exercisers, retailers, parkers etc.) with the effect that results are compromised and lack clear vision and a strong design statement. We are left with a malaise that afflicts many public space plans, of trying to fit in too much. Why Australians fear open space, other than as an opportunity to exploit, is a question for another time.

The idea of public space is changing. Some people want a civic square; a central park, an entertainment venue, a garden, a town common, a village green, a suburban playground. New ideas are coming from technology, such as Castell’s theory of the space of flows. We ask whether we want our experience to be inspirational, aspirational, or recreational.

Perhaps the answer lies in the vision we have for the future of the town, rather than in a list of wants based on present pursuits.

Assets
Open space is an asset with intrinsic value. It is place for tranquillity, repose, and reflection; a place to loiter without intent. It is in psychological terms, potential or transitional space, being flexible and undetermined. There is a feeling that the master Plan is over-determined, and as such will require future spending and remodelling.

Physical Context.
While the facilities and design are important, the flow between the park and its immediate and further surrounds is vitally important. This is difficult with Kibble Park as it is bordered by ‘dead zones’ - Henry Parry Drive, Donnison Street, Half of William Street and Mortimer Lane.

Setting.
Outstanding features of Kibble Park are the views of the hills to the east and west.
More thought could be given to highlighting the lines of sight to these natural horizons. Interactive optical devices, sundials, sculpture and framing devices could be used to link the ground and the sky. The park needs to look upwards.

Kibble Park is a rare opportunity to set a vision for the town beyond simply its commercial function, important though that is. Alone that will not achieve a unique identity for the town, as we have seen.


NOTE

Some information that might be of interest about two events that provided material upon which the above comments were based.

1
In March 2008 an open forum was held in Kibble Park. It was organised by Gosford Art Flux Forum and featured presentations by Professor Steffen Lehmann, Dr. Astra Howard, international artist Cida de Aragon and Professor Anne Graham amongst others.

Professor Steffen Lehmann is the Artistic Director of the ‘Back to the City’ project in Newcastle, a new biannual public arts festival about temporary interventions in public space. He is a German-born architect and urban designer and holds the Chair in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle. He is Founding Director of the s_Lab Space Laboratory for architectural Research and Design (Sydney-Berlin).

As part of the event we conducted a psychography survey and mapping exercise where people were asked to mark the places to which they were most attracted on a large map of Gosford CBD.
From the results, it was clear that the eastern end of Kibble Park was the most valued place in town. Not one mark was placed on the western end. Without further research it would seem that green open space was desired while the paved, over-determined and cluttered western end held no appeal. The library itself had some positive hits.

2
In November, 2007, Sydney based artist Astra Howard brought her SPI Vehicle (a transparent booth with walls on which conversations could be written from inside and out) to Gosford city centre. Dr. Howard regards her artwork as action-research. She mostly works in public places where she can engage in “conversation” with people about things of interest to them.

She has worked in major urban centres in Australia and overseas, and also worked extensively with homeless people and other marginalised communities. She has adopted a social science methodology in her art practice with a goal of calling for greater recognition of the dynamic and interactive relationship formed between individuals and external urban environments – collectively envisioning a vibrant and vital public space.

The conversations that took place were documented.

Cultural traditions

November 1, 1895.

Sunday Afternoon in Gosford

To THE EDITOR OF THE GOSFORD TIMES

Sir, – I think the subject on which I wish to write a few lines is of sufficient public importance to request you to publish the following. I was an eye witness (unobserved) to the most villainous attacks on two ladies this afternoon by a number of youths and young men (pardon my abusing the word “men”) congregated in front of a small shop in the main street. A lady walked quietly up the street; as she did so, these fellows commenced whistling and calling out something offensive (the whole of which I could not make out). Next a young girl came along and after her they whistled and literally yelled. How many more they attacked, I did not wait to see.
Where are your policemen on Sunday? Or have you any? In my professional capacity, I have visited the worst and lowest parts of London, New York, Sydney and other places, but anything like this I have never witnessed. I was thankful I had not to bring my family to reside in such a community and glad I shall be able to shake the dust of Gosford from my feet, upon the arrival of the 7.35p.m. train.
Hoping I have not trespassed too much on your valuable space. Yours &c.,
QUANTUM SUFFICIT.

Gosford by Moonlight

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition at the Gosford Regional Gallery at full moon last Friday, titled "A Sense of Place", we present a poem from The Gosford Times.

5th May, 1899

Gosford by Moonlight
(For The “Times”)

I stood on the range o’or Gosford,
At the lonely midnight hour,
When the moon at the full was shining
With a wondrous golden power.

I gazed on a fairy scene below
That spread upon either hand,
The golden moonlit water,
The shadowy, dreamy land.

And Gosford lay in her cradle there
In robes of shimmering gold,
Slumbering like a fairy child
Embraced in a fairy fold.

And all was still save a distant hum
That sailed in the calm repose;
T’was the solemn moan of the restless sea,
That up to the ranges rose.

My God! What a cry, like a banshee’s wail,
From that lone bird as it flew,
Wailing all round that ghostly cry
Curlew! Curlew! Curlew!

O my soul drank deep of the magic there
As I gazed on each moonlit bay,
And my tongue burst forth in rapture loud
As I turned to move away.

Oh! for a soul, a burning soul
I cried as I gazed all round,
To paint on a canvas glorious
The picture that there I found.

Cean O’C

Illusions

To keep people in Gosford town, to stop them straying to the shopping malls for entertainment and company, and heading down the freeway to find culture, perhaps we could erect some cardboard decoys.
Perhaps we need some phantom art centres, film theatres, museums etc. and real coffee shops open after 5pm to cater to the expectant crowds.

German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer's patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops.
"They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home."
The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.
"We will approach them and say that the bus is coming later and invite them in for a coffee," said Richard Neureither, Benrath's director. "Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave."





The allure of an illusion of a promise.








There are many possibilities.



Virtual speed humps are part of a campaign called Drive CarePhilly.
The fake speed humps are being installed at 100 junctions around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of a campaign against aggressive driving.

The images will appear as 3D barriers to oncoming motorists, although the road is completely flat.


In Vancouver cardboard police with radar guns are being installed to curb speeding.





Cheap solutions are often effective.

In Britain, the most recent Home Office report on urban surveillance found that better street lighting is seven times more effective at cutting crime than CCTV.

Here it is

For those who do not know the location of the Gosford School of Arts building.
Firstly a map:


And secondly a link to an old photograph. (Click to enlarge)

Art Centre

The Gosford Times. December 23, 1898. "One of the institutions of Gosford of which the town and district can be justly proud is the School of Arts. In these days of learning when it is generally agreed brains and brawn and recreation and toil are factors as inescapable as they are indispensable to the attainment of the fullest and best results of life and labour, the town that cannot boast of a School of Arts is either a very insignificant place or extremely tardy in the march of progress. If Gosford is somewhat back in other respects, an allegation we won’t deny, it has certainly nothing to be ashamed of in its medium for disseminating light and information and providing honest and instructive recreation. In this respect, at least, it can vie with many towns of much greater pretensions. The Gosford School of Arts was established in 1888, and, as will be seen from the illustration, is rather an imposing structure. It is substantially built of brick and stone and with furniture etc. cost something like £1,500. The building comprises a first class library room, containing about 800 volumes; a reading room (free), which is supplied with all the latest papers and periodicals, chess and draught table etc; a large meeting room, at the disposal of the public at a very nominal charge; and chambers used by the Municipal Council and the Oddfellows Lodge. Then on the street level there is a spacious hall capable of seating about 250 people, fitted with a roomy stage, piano, scenery etc. etc. As showing the readiness of the committee to meet the growing needs of theatricals and the public generally we may say that during the last five or six years, the stage has been considerably enlarged and scenery and drop curtains etc. provided at a cost of about £60, so that it may now fairly lay claim to being one of the best equipped halls in the colony for the size and importance of the town. There are members on the committee of management today who have been connected with the institution continuously since its inception 10 years ago, and it speaks well for their interest and enthusiasm in its welfare and the management exercised by them, when we say that not withstanding the heavy expenses incurred in improvements to the hall, additions to the library and otherwise increasing the general utility of the institution, the debt has been reduced to £240. Although the School of Arts receives a fair amount of patronage, the membership roll if the library is not so large as might reasonably be expected, considering the advantages offered. In our advertising columns will be found the rates of subscription etc. and we trust the new year will bring an increased membership list and that long before another ten years the building will enjoy the position of being free from debt altogether."

What a shame that the building is now lost to the people of Gosford, and closed to the public. The possibility of restoring it to be a Centre for Contemporary Art has been raised with Debra Schleger, Marie Andrews and Belinda Neal. More action is planned.