I watched the extraordinary meeting of Albury City Council on YouTube regarding the use of Greenfield Park by the Melbourne Storm rugby league club and I was very disappointed about the outcome.
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The decision to not allow them to use this playing field because they might spread COVID-19 in our community seems to me a wrong one, and one that may come back to bite us in the future.
I would think that the Melbourne Storm, a professional sporting body, would ensure their players and staff would be checked by professional medical personnel for COVID-19 prior to attending any group training. The management and players would not jeopardise their season.
Some councillors mentioned that all local sporting clubs were not training or using the local grounds because of the threat of the spread of the virus. This is true, however these groups have not had the same strict regime to follow as the Melbourne Storm.
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If we want to attract national sporting bodies to our area, the elected councillors have to be more professional when making important decisions that will certainly affect the commercial benefits that we would have received by having the Melbourne Storm train on a ground that was not being used.
Making national news for all the wrong reasons will certainly not be a benefit to all here in business. The decision made by our council will be known to all sporting bodies throughout Australia, and if in the future we are vying to attract national teams to play sport here, they may have second thoughts about Albury.
There are council elections due at the end of the year, so all people who are eligible to vote, please think about who you give your vote to.
Wayne Matsinos, Albury
We can't keep borrowing
It does not appear that local councils understand their responsibility post coronavirus and appear to be more concerned about getting elected next election instead of making hard decisions.
I do not think they understand we cannot continue borrowing money to maintain our lifestyle indefinitely. The consequences of this continual borrowing will make inflation an issue for the future. The message that the economy is not a tap where you turn it on and off at will is not well understood. The result of this shutdown will change this country and our lifestyle for years to come.
For rural councils it is an ideal time to attract small to medium size industries to relocate from the cities.
But to do this they have to overcome red tape delays and approve sensible development.
After living in a small apartment for a month I am sure many city people would love to move to a rural area. The decision by the Albury City Council to ban the Melbourne Storm training on their facilities does not send a message of confidence to the manufacturing sector to relocate.
If Australia wants to come out of this health crisis all levels of governments need to make hard decisions and forget about any nice to haves.
John Walker, Wangaratta
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