ALBURY Council's continued interest in a plan for an Uiver museum in the heart of the city has baffled leaders of two organisations.
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Albury and District Historical Society president Greg Ryan and Uiver Memorial Community Trust chairman Pieter Mol were left puzzled by the council's decision to keep entertaining the idea.
Instead it will continue to support consultant Peddle Thorp which declared in an interim report "it is clear the community and stakeholders do not support the proposal for a Uiver Museum building in QE2 square".
The historical society and Uiver trust were two of those stakeholders which met with Peddle Thorp.
Mr Ryan said he was "bewildered" the council opted to keep exploring the concept of having the restored Uiver replica plane in the square, given the negative sentiment.
"QEII is a lovely space, a green space in the centre of town, it's a venue for a number of events such as the twilight markets and putting that structure there truncates the whole open vista," Mr Ryan said.
Mr Mol, whose group owns the replica which has been undergoing restoration at the Albury airport since 2016, was taken aback by the council's decision.
"Given the aircraft is owned by the Uiver Memorial Community Trust, we're a bit perplexed as to what the councillors are wanting to put in the building because we haven't agreed to that at all," Mr Mol said of a QEII move.
"At the moment the trust has been able to purchase a hangar where the restoration is continuing apace and that hangar lends itself to being a living museum."
Uiver historian Noel Jackling has been the leading voice for the replica being housed in the square.
He told The Border Mail this week that higher visitor numbers to the library-museum than the airport were a key reason for his stance.
But Mr Mol queried that argument.
"It's the trust's view that while there are a lot of people that visit the library-museum, a large percentage of those are repeat visitors that are changing their library books," Mr Mol said.
"Once they see the display (of the replica), they're not going to go there again.
"With statistics you can use them in any way you want."
Mr Ryan suggested it was only Mr Jackling's sway keeping the QEII option in the air.
"I think if Noel wasn't involved the concept would have died some time ago," he said.