Patton Park setback, Council backs tourism

Setback for Patton Park upgrade

Council's plan to revitalise Patton Park has hit a hurdle after it received little response when putting the work out to tender.

The planned upgrade includes new disability-friendly toilets, play equipment, barbecues, paths, smart lighting, CCTV and shelters.

Council's General Manager, James Roncon, said only one response was received when the tender period closed on April 27.

He said Council would now take a different approach to delivering the project.

"We tendered for someone to complete the project as a whole but only received one response, and in that instance they only wanted to construct new play equipment," he said.

"And we can understand that lack of interest to some extent. There are a number of multi-million dollar projects underway in the city at the moment, and as a result our $735,000 park upgrade probably doesn't look as attractive to contractors as it ordinarily would.

"So we'll now look to break the project down and tender out smaller parts of the upgrade individually.

"This delay will set us back a few months, but the Patton Park upgrade remains a key project for this Council, and we look forward to delivering it."

Council to back tourism push

Council is looking to grow Broken Hill's presence in the tourism market by providing funding for strategic marketing.

$120,000 has been set aside in the 2018/2019 budget to help establish a body to market the city as a tourist destination.

Council's General Manager, James Roncon, said that $20,000 would go towards administration of the initiative, while $100,000 would be put on the table if a body could be formed from local businesses to match that amount dollar-for-dollar.

"We're very happy to support the push to increase tourism, but it's not something Council can do on its own," he said.

"It's important that any destination marketing is driven by local business and tourism professionals who have that industry knowledge.

"Ideally local businesses will match our $100,000 dollar-for-dollar, we then take $200,000 to Destination NSW and they match that figure, then suddenly we have a $400,000 war chest to create a strategic marketing campaign to showcase Broken Hill as a tourist destination.

"We look forward to chatting with local businesses and groups as to how we can move forward with the idea."