Seniors slam link vote

Alex de Vos
Surf Coast Shire could press ahead with controversial plans to link Torquay Senior Citizens Centre with Spring Creek Community House after councillors rejected a recommendation to keep the facilities separate.
A shire officers’ report recommended that council “inform the senior citizens…the two buildings are to be upgraded separately and not linked”. But councillors voted five to four this week to remove the sentence while adopting the officers’ remaining recommendations to notify the groups the shire would seek expressions of interest from architects to upgrade the buildings and to send both organisations a “fact sheet”.
The Independent revealed in October the senior citizens had gathered almost 200 signatures on a petition opposing council’s plans to link the buildings. The initial plans showed the seniors losing their kitchen and separate entrance, with a ramp linking the neighbouring buildings.
The next week shire sustainable communities director Dennis Barker said a merger was unlikely.
Torquay Senior Citizens Centre secretary Elizabeth Wapshott was “furious” at council’s decision.
“We’re not happy with this at all,” Mrs Wapshott said.
“The Spring Creek Community House runs drug and alcohol programs and this is a concern for the seniors. The two houses are totally different and we don’t want to be linked.”
Mayor Dean Webster said he voted to remove the recommendation because “the wording was too harsh”.
“The wording…meant they couldn’t be linked at all,” he said.
“They can work together on different functions and we didn’t want to stop that. The intention of council is that they have two separate identities, will be two separate buildings and managed by two separate committees of management.”
The next council will decide whether to reinstate the recommendation to keep the buildings separate after councillor Ron Humphrey tabled a recision motion against this week’s vote.
Cr Humphrey said the new councillors would have a chance to consider all three of the officers’ recommendations.
Federal Government has allocated $450,000 over two years for extensions to the community house and $400,000 to refurbish the senior citizens centre.