Tycoon’s views fail to faze Manning
PETER CARRUTHERS MAYOR Bob Manning says he is not fazed by criticism levelled at council by visiting Crystalbrook Collection boss Ghassan Aboud.
The duo sat down to a meeting yesterday after the Syrian billionaire accused council of going slow on the roll out of a CBD pedestrian zone on the Esplanade between Shields and Aplin Sts.
Cr Manning said “aspects of the CBD masterplan are changing all the time” however closing the Esplanade to traffic after 5pm was not an option.
“You can’t do that every day, there is a lot of people that live along there,” he said.
Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Nick Loukas said the chamber backed the pedestrian zone and would like to see the CBD plan finalised by the end of the year.
“The chamber supports the CBD pedestrian precinct, however we also want this to be implemented as part of the larger picture of the CBD to link the CBD and the esplanade and benefit all businesses,” he said.
Cairns Airport has also re- sponded to Mr Aboud’s comments on the failure to attract Middle Eastern carriers to Cairns.
An airport spokeswoman said: “The airport is in continual negotiations with airlines to increase services to Cairns. We would very much welcome a Middle Eastern carrier to Cairns as it would improve our connectivity to Europe.”