Call for more street cleaning

The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has called on Gosford Council to increase street cleaning and maintenance of the Peninsula town centres of Ettalong Beach, Woy Woy and Umina Beach.

"Whilst the current contractor, ACS Group, does a great job in maintaining our town centres, they do so under very restrictive financial constraints," Chamber president Mr Matthew Wales said.

"Gosford Council only allocates $180,000 for the street cleaning, maintenance and security in our town centres which only allows two ACS contractors to undertake the works required.

"At best, it gives only a couple of days of maintenance for each town centres each week with no service being provided over the weekend.

"By comparison, the Gosford CBD, which has a similar area to our three town centres, receives nearly $350,000 in funding for a seven day a week service."

Mr Wales said that this inequality was unacceptable as the demands of both town centres were comparable.

"With high pedestrian traffic areas like Umina Beach, more regular footpath cleaning is needed to ensure that the community's assets are properly maintained," Mr Wales said.

"The frequency of mechanical scrubbing needs to be increased and more maintenance is required to our gardens and street furniture.

"We understand Council's financial constraints but street cleaning is vitally important to ensure that shoppers and visitors to our area feel like they want to return and spend their money.

"This issue was raised at our recent monthly meeting with Mayor Jim Macfadyen."

Mr Wales aid that Cr Macfadyen acknowledged our calls and will work with the Chamber to improve services.

Mr Wales said the Chamber would be making representations to council for the required budget increases over the next month in the lead-up to the Council's 2008-2009 Budget Review

Press release, 9 Feb 2008 Matthew Wales, Peninsula Chamber of Commerce