THE Bermagui Botanic Gardens group has abandoned plans to build a native botanic garden in Spooner Park following a heated community meeting last week.
About 25 of the 40 people at the meeting called by the gardens group voted for a motion against any changes to the neighbourhood park.
Group spokesperson Rosemary Millard said she was very disappointed by the negative and aggressive tone of the meeting saying it was meant to be an information session to get people’s ideas and get them involved.
An anonymous letter with what Mrs Millard called misinformation was posted around town calling on people to attend the meeting and voice their opposition to any changes.
The idea was not to deny people usage of the park but to have a landscaped garden featuring native plants that grow in the area with height restrictions on plants and no plans to cut down the existing trees, she said.
The garden could have been a tourist attraction and was suited to having some changes as the area is protected and not in prominent location such as a headland.
No formal plans had been lodged with the Bega Valley Shire Council, but the council had given conditional support for the proposal and its advice was to seek community feedback on the proposal, she said.
A council civil infrastructure spokesman said there was no immediate plans to change the park and any changes in the park would require community support.
Mrs Millard said there was resentment that all residents living around the park had not been consulted personally and that the invitation in the Triangle publication to come and assist in planning the Gardens was presumed to be high handed and presumptuous.
“If no consultation had been requested, this would have been presumptuous,” Mrs Millard said.
“And even though the park had been there for some time, it had only been named after the founder of the Liberal Party in the last 50 years.”
Among those opposed to any changes to Spooner Park is Bermagui Historical Society member Marianne Hunter who said the park had been there for well over 100 years.
The community was concerned about losing the open space and the cutting down of the trees at the park, while there was also anger that the community had not been consulted with many under the impression that the council had already approved the changes.
“We don’t want Spooner Park changed and who is going to look after it,” Mrs Hunter said.
But the plans for a native botanic garden somewhere in Bermagui have not been totally abandoned and Mrs Millard said she hoped more people would join the group and look at other locations, as gardens involving community members had been very successful elsewhere in the Bega Valley Shire.
“Many other areas were suggested from places like the Old Tip, Barragoot Headland, the Harbour foreshores, the headlands from the Anzac Memorial round to the Blue Pool and I have conveyed this information to Bega Valley Shire Council,” she said.
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