IN a city that prides itself on its beaches, the disgrace that is South Newcastle Beach is hard to explain. The built infrastructure at Newcastle Beach itself is tidy enough, if rather sternly utilitarian, but the area south to King Edward Park is an atrocious civic embarrassment.
From the ramshackle handrails, the cancerous seat shelters, the hotchpotch pavements, the ugly cracked concrete walls, the forbidding walkways, the litter and the rampant weeds to the relatively new wire safety barriers already rusting the area is breathtakingly horrible.
The crowning glories of this mess are the beachfront skate park and graffiti walls. At one time this probably seemed like a good idea, but that time is long past. The skate park is neglected and shabby. Most of the graffiti is boring and derivative and its creators seem unable to keep their own simple rules about where and where not to spray their paint.
It is impossible to visit this abused piece of ground without imagining how pleasant it could be. The road closed since the infamous "rather large rock" incident that made the city council a laughing stock begs to be permanently converted to a more appealing pedestrian walk. The northern end of Fletcher Park calls out to be terraced and connected to the beach. The skate park and graffiti walls demand to be put out of their misery and the whole sad fabric of decrepit structures along the oceanfront is ready for replacement.
Newcastle City Council lacks the funds for the job, but private developer Mirvac has been given the right to develop the former Royal Newcastle Hospital site. Mirvac is obliged to make a statutory payment to the city and the question of whether this money should go towards fixing the adjacent degraded oceanfront has arisen.
The council may see this question as bearing on its right to spend developer contributions as it sees fit. Mirvac may believe as does Planning Minister Frank Sartor that contributions ought to be spent close to the developments from which they flow. Both sides have fair points to make, but it would be tragic for Newcastle if this debate prevented the city from taking full advantage of a rare opportunity to harness private funds to eliminate a dreadful eyesore.
City parking roulette
NEWCASTLE lord mayoral hopeful Cr Aaron Buman is hoping to mine the rich vein of resentment voters feel about the city's draconian parking regime. Cr Buman has vowed to freeze the number of parking meters in Newcastle and to seek better ways of bolstering the civic coffers. Weekend parking restrictions and fines have come in for particular mention, with Cr Buman pointing out that these played a role in killing the infant mall markets and are injuring city businesses by penalising those shoppers still willing to play parking roulette with Newcastle's diligent enforcement officers. Parking meters may have a role to play in ensuring car parks are turned over on weekdays, but on weekends they are simply another way to sting visitors to the city.
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