Keep on getting on with business

NOT everyone will be seeing eye to eye on the projects the Geelong council is advancing.

On issues like the route and design of the Belmont bike paths, there will be opposing views that are genuinely and passionately held.

However it is worth noting the main reason we are having these debates is that we appear to have a council that is actually toiling behind the scenes on a municipal ‘to do’ list of real projects.

The administrators got some work under way — including putting the old Geelong Gaol on the market — but flipped and flopped on big issues.

Before them was a council, eventually sacked, riven by personal conflicts and not always able to put big picture thought bubbles into practical results — it campaigned in poetry but failed to govern in prose.

Before that council was a council led by a likeable Mayor who was driven to quitting because of the toughness of the political game and opposition from antagonistic opponents.

This “new” council is still finding its voice but it is also building some momentum and it is focussing on long-unresolved issues that matter like getting trucks off Ryrie St. (That is said not out of Addy selfinterest — we’re moving our offices into the mall.)

A new tenant for the Beach House is a categorical achievement. We have been critical of prior council neglect and lack of haste that has seen that Geelong icon lying vacant over summers past.

The involvement of the Mulberry group in reopening a cafe and function centre there is welcome. And if it can be done by Christmas, as is hoped, that would be an excellent result altogether.

These are signs for hope that this council, if it keeps toiling, might deliver for the city where others have failed.

A functional leadership in City Hall focussed on outcomes and able to put the bureaucracy to work could achieve amazing things at this time of renaissance for our city and region.