By KIERAN FINNANE
Council is a business and needs to run like a business, but every business has a heart and soul and in Alice Springs the heart and soul can be found in community events. Council should do its best, therefore, to look after and promote them. It already offers financial and in kind support but it could do more, says Town Council by-election candidate John Bridgefoot (pictured).
Something that may be worth considering is council hosting a marketing position supporting multiple events organised by different community groups. Mr Bridgefoot has strong links to some of them: he’s the Commodore of Henley-on-Todd (the equivalent of chair of the board); chair of Red Hot Arts Central Australia, organiser of the Alice Desert Festival; a past president of Totem Theatre; and a member of a number of automotive sports clubs.
These interests inform his approach to a trigger issue in any Alice Springs election campaign, what to do about anti-social behavior. His answer: an active, engaged community. “Coming down the heavy” with by-laws, for example, only makes it happen more, he says. More things for people to do in the town’s public spaces will counteract boredom and the opportunity for anti-social behavior: “If there are lots of people around, things for them to do and see, there’s less crime.”
Skating in the mall is a good example. He’s “100%” behind the trial. He’s not convinced that the trial area is the best place – particularly from the point of view of skater safety, given the glass windows in proximity – but the trial should give the information council needs to make a good longer term decision. Whatever the outcome, he’s also in favour of exploring an alternative area for skating at Snow Kenna Park, as recently suggested in council.
And he goes further: he’d like to see the mall opened up to cyclists, not 24/7 but, for instance, on non-market days after 4pm and perhaps also early in the morning.
“We want more people in the mall. I’d like to see shops open till 10pm, people strolling there of an evening. Council can’t do all this but it can help provide the right environment for it to happen.”
What about the thornier anti-social behaviour issues such as public drinking and drunkenness? (Council’s community survey showed the following as the top five areas respondents wanted council to focus on: recycling, antisocial behaviour, alcohol awareness, keeping the town clean, and by-law enforcement.)
Says Mr Bridgefoot: “If drinking in public is a problem in a particular area, then make alcohol less easy to get in that area.”
He recognizes this as a “hugely contentious issue” and beyond council’s jurisdiction but council has a role in taking the community’s views to the NT Government, and lobbying for action. “Councillors need to listen to what people want and be the conduit for their views” to the appropriate level of government.
Another issue close to his heart is road safety. He owns a driving school and has previously been on the Road Safety Council for 12 years.
Council has a big part to play in road design, he says. It has made some “silly mistakes” in the past and needs a sensible head to guide it. Examples? Median strips in the wrong places, leaving cars not enough “wriggle room”; poorly designed intersections, such as that of Gap Road and Stuart Terrace, opposite the Memo Club.
The answer that they are designed “to Australian standard” is a “bug bear” for Mr Bridgefoot . The Australian standard is “a minimum standard”: “We’ve got the space, we can make roads safer by having more room in them.”
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Sunday, November 17, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
Mr Bridgefoot is unique in having the courage to mention alcohol abuse as an issue in terms of local government in this by-election.
Many towns throughout Australia are facing the same anti-social effects of alcohol abuse, but he appears to be interested in taking it on and taking it further.
He may be aware that hotel owners in Tennant Creek have been reported (by Anthony Stewart on the ABC, November 11) as preparing to abandon voluntary alcohol restrictions because police are no longer participating in the town’s liquor accord.
The restrictions introduced in September saw sales of wine banned for two hours each evening, and only mid-strength alcohol sold on Mondays.
The Tennant Creek Hotel owner Jordan Jenkins said pubs and bottle shops are also being targeted by police, which is further restricting sales.
He said the police are no longer willing to work on a strategy to restrict alcohol sales and allow businesses to continue to operate.
“Police stopped coming to the Liquor Accord meetings,” Mr Jenkins said.
“The only time we sort of hear from police was recently when they asked us to do voluntary restrictions.”
Mr Jenkins said the police operation has made licensees unwilling to maintain the restrictions.
“They are not sharing information or working with us and at this stage the accord feels that we are no longer going to participate in the mid-strength Monday, or restriction on wines or the plastic bottle wines,” he said.
“I mean we are not going to go bankrupt so police can present stats to people.”
This last is a very interesting comment. Mr Jenkins appears to be saying that alcohol outlets are prepared to maintain their businesses at the expense of the rest of the community and Mr Tollner is disappointed that the community hasn’t got its Alcohol Management Plan in place. I wonder why?