Nannup Visitor Centre pulls out
THE NANNUP Tourism Association board has pulled the pin on the TimeWood Centre co-location project, just as tenders were to be called for building to start early next year.
The following email was sent to the shire council Last Thursday morning:
“The board of the Nannup Tourism Association Inc (‘NTA’) has decided unanimously at its board meeting held on 22 October 2009 that the Nannup Visitors Centre (‘NVC’) involvement with the co-location between the NVC, the Telecentre and the Historical Society be discontinued forthwith.”
The email then went on to list the tourism association board’s concerns with the project.
The timing of the email was significant — it was an 11th hour decision — because the Nannup Tourism Association’s annual general meeting took place on that Thursday evening.
Six board members were up for re-election.
The meeting should have been held in August, according to the association’s constitution.
At the meeting, several tourism association members asked for an explanation of the decision and its timing.
It appears the board made the decision without any consultation with its members.
Some members have told the Donnybrook-Bridgetown Mail that they were very unhappy a decision of this magnitude was taken without any member input.
The project proponents hope the TimeWood Centre will still proceed with another co-location partner, sources said.
Funding is already in place and the building is seen as vital infrastructure to service the future needs of the Nannup Community.
Moves to develop the TimeWood Centre started just over five years ago.
At a community planning day it was identified as one of the future needs for Nannup, to enable more services to be provided for the community.
This was reinforced at the last community planning day held only last year.
The aim is to erect a purpose-built building on Warren Road, next to the Main Roads Board building, to provide larger premises for the Nannup Telecentre and the Nannup Visitor Centre and better access to the Historical Society.
The Visitor Centre and Telecentre are operating out of small and outdated buildings which were not built for their present uses.
People working in the buildings have said they are now too small for efficient operation.
The Visitor Centre provides vital services to Nannup, opening seven days providing information on Nannup and the surrounding area and finding and booking acc-ommodation for the many visitors who wish to stay or are passing through. It also runs the Brockman Street and Riversbend caravan parks.
The Telecentre (soon to be renamed the Community Resource Centre) provides a swag of services to Nannup.
Many of these services focus on the residents and small business operators, but they are also valuable to travellers — internet access, Medicare, Cen-trelink, video-conferences, photocopying and photo printing, TAFE classes, ANZ banking, producing and printing the telecentre newsletter. The Telecentre is also home to the Nannup Volunteer Resource Centre, which provides support to the community groups.
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