Premier urged to weigh up Robina’s needs for Games

A GOLD Coast councillor wants Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to get a first-hand look at the infrastructure needed ahead of the 2032 Olympics to prevent Robina becoming a traffic nightmare.

Ms Palaszczuk will this week lead a three-day tour of proposed Games venues in Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts for Games bosses and delegates, including International Olympics Committee president Thom“This as Bach. Robina councillor Hermann Vorster wrote to the Premier on Monday asking to join the tour and show her why major road upgrades were critical in his suburb, which will host the satellite athletes village.

In his letter, Cr Vorster warned the area’s road network around Robina Town Centre was “dire” and still prone to “grinding to a halt for prolonged periods”.

“This creates enormous social and economic costs for the whole of the Gold Coast,” he said.

will get worse without decisive government intervention and it will become the Gold Coast’s biggest carpark.”

Among those attending will be sports director Christophe Dubi and former Olympic swimming star Kirsty Coventry.

The Gold Coast is expected to host up to nine sports and be home to more venues than any other city, with most being reused from the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The athletes village, a development worth several hundred million dollars, is earmarked for a 7ha site next to Robina Town Centre.

Cr Vorster said he wanted to show the Premier the site and urge her to consider what it would do post-2032, in a bid to prevent it becoming an underused “white elephant”.

A giant retirement community is among the ideas already proposed.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games village was transformed into the city’s Health and Knowledge Precinct but it has long been the target of criticism for failing to live up to expectations.