IF one councillor has his way, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre and the civic centre would be demolished to make room for a multi-purpose facility in the heart of the city.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Councillor Jess Jennings will propose that building a new entertainment centre is made a priority at Wednesday night’s policy committee meeting of Bathurst Regional Council.
He said the city is in need of a new BMEC as the current facility is “past its use-by date by five years” and the costs associated with maintenance are growing.
“It was basically a stop-gap effort in the 1990s to upgrade the previous 1960s theatre,” he said. “We are paying for that now with major technical, access, administration, dated design and engineering problems.”
Cr Jennings said these issues include difficulties moving equipment around, compromised sight lines, tight space in the wings, a lack of storage and instances of flooding in the basement.
Last week, the state government announced plans to invest $4 billion into infrastructure in rural and regional areas after NSW agreed to transfer its share of Snowy Hydro to the Commonwealth.
Cr Jennings said the NSW Government also has a Regional Cultural Fund coming up and council will miss out on funding for a new entertainment centre if it doesn’t act now.
“The location of a new BMEC is ultimately up to the design and development process once it is funded but, personally, I would like to see the current civic centre and BMEC buildings both levelled to make way for a purpose-built dual theatre complex with function centre, restaurant, bar and cafe catering options,” he said.
The building would also be a “one-stop shop” for council services.
Cr Jennings said many of the back office functions of council’s four departments could be moved to outside of the city centre, in lower commercial rent brackets.
Building an entirely new entertainment centre wouldn’t come cheap and, while Cr Jennings couldn’t give a specific figure, he estimated council would need to apply for “tens of millions” in funding for the project.
This isn’t the first time someone has suggested building a new entertainment centre, however, the argument has been to move it to an area where there could be more parking facilities.
When asked about the issue of parking around BMEC, Cr Jennings said it was something that would need to be considered.
“That would come down to the parking strategy for council to resolve that issue, but a well-designed building could incorporate underground parking, for example,” he said.
In talking about the overall proposal, he said a new entertainment centre would be a major community asset and “energise” the CBD as a great cultural precinct.
“It’s not often that so many stars align to rebuild a major community asset like BMEC, but local population growth, decaying infrastructure, outdated design, access issues, technological change and especially funding are all big reasons why council must ‘get this show on the road’ now,” Cr Jennings said.
When the campaign was in motion nearly 30 years ago to update BMEC, Judy Rutherford was there helping to lead the charge.
She said Bathurst had been “very lucky” to get the facility that it has today, but the fact that the city is growing can’t be overlooked.
“I think a new performance space would be desirable, but I do think there is a lot that needs to be considered, and parking is one of those things,” she said.