Rejected before

SIR, – Minutes before submissions closed I became aware of Horsham Rural City Council’s intention to tear up the entire length of Firebrace Street and convert it to bike lanes, parallel parking, wider footpaths and median strips.

This proposal was rejected by the community in 2019 with guarantees that HRCC had totally abandoned it. But HRCC has a history of ignoring the wishes of the community.

Several weeks ago our mayor described her council as ‘a visionary council’.

My dictionary lists 39 adjectives describing ‘visionary’. These are the ones I was drawn to in the context of HRCC – impractical, unrealistic, unworkable, unfeasible, out of touch with reality, fairy-tale, fanciful, dreamy, ivory-towered, theoretical, hypothetical, starry-eyed, head-inthe-clouds, to which I add egotistical, ambitious, arrogant and finally, self-aggrandisement – through the use of other people’s money.

Footpaths: I walk the full length of Firebrace Street daily and sometimes more than once. Regardless of what time I walk, I am surprised if I can count more than four to six people using a footpath on either side of any of the five blocks at any given time.

Parallel parking: Everyone hates having to parallel park and no retailers want it, much less the reduction in spaces.

I frequently note the presence of industrial service vehicles. None of these can be easily parallel parked yet these people bring significant custom to retailers and this HRCC ‘visionaries’ folly will just make it harder to do business.

It is not fancy streetscapes that make successful shopping precincts. It is highquality shops whose owners are sufficiently profitable to invest in a bigger range of stock that will attract more customers.

Firebrace Street retailers struggle with outrageous HRCC rates, pay obscene rates on their homes, have dealt with COVID-19 restrictions and now our ‘visionary’ council wants to impose more debt and disruption on them and all ratepayers alike for decades to come. NB: It is just 13 years since Firebrace Street was remodelled. B. Hedt, Horsham