RE: Proposed integrated medical centre.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Business owners, and the manager of the RSL Club, regularly argue that a six-storey medical facility is "vital to the future of the central business district".
The Bathurst Business Chamber president ("Chamber's CBD concerns", January 13) acknowledges staff shortages and increasing costs to operate a business as being the main concerns of business owners, but it's obvious they are also in denial that flagging business is due to changing shopping habits and no medical centre in the heritage conservation area would change that.
Some business owners, such as Jackson's Glass, have recognised the need to move with the times and save on the expense of having a shopfront and have gone mobile.
Going mobile is not possible for everyone, but the owners of commercial properties in Bathurst's CBD must also be aware and reminded that a new popular way of working now and into the future is that of digital nomads.
And, to repeat, no inappropriate ugly development such as a monster high private medical centre in the heritage conservation area would change this new way of doing business.
It's accepted that Bathurst needs more medical facilities but we need to get the current public hospital up to scratch first, and the old Clancy Motors site in Howick Street is not appropriate.
The best site for a new private medical centre in Bathurst is Bathurst Regional Council's depot which is in the current medical precinct.
Good planning for an alternative site for the depot could be where the saleyards once were on Vale Road, and perhaps all of the empty shops in town could be repurposed into housing to revitalise the city centre.
A perfect example of the latter is where heritage warrior developer, the late Bruce Bolam, redeveloped the old Metropolitan Hotel in George Street into a new heritage sensitive business below and a beautiful home above street level within the heritage conservation area of the oldest inland European settlement, which everyone needs to know, be grateful for, and to remember to maintain our uniqueness.
