CITY of Greater Geelong mayor Bruce Harwood has made a spirited defence of Geelong becoming a\u00a0UNESCO City of Design, saying the costs incurred so far would \u201cpale into insignificance\u201d compared to the potential benefits.<\/p>\n
The City of Greater Geelong generally and Cr Harwood specifically have been criticised for the mayor\u2019s recent publically funded overseas travel, which includes last month\u2019s $20,000 trip, mostly for the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) Creative Cities Network annual meeting in Poland but also including visits to Scotland and Italy.<\/p>\n
Speaking to this newspaper last week, Cr Harwood said that now Geelong was designated as a City of Design (the first in Australia), the trip was justified and had broadened the city\u2019s thinking about some of its future major projects, including the new consolidated council building (which he hoped would \u201cgive Geelong a real wow factor\u201d, the Geelong convention centre and stage five of GMHBA Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurely you have to look at the merit first and foremost \u2013 what is the reasoning, and what is the end value that is sought? You can\u2019t just say no, and you can\u2019t just say yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of money that\u2019s been spent for what we\u2019re talking about in relation to Geelong\u2019s future, I think pales into insignificance very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo bring back the ideas and the learnings that we have got \u2013 this is what we\u2019ve learnt about cities that have been in our position and have done exactly what we are doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see first-hand some of the buildings they\u2019ve done are absolutely spectacular, and perhaps things we wouldn\u2019t have turned our mind to; we\u2019d thought \u2018that\u2019s too big for Geelong\u2019. It actually isn\u2019t any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the trips to Dundee and Turin were particularly inspirational in terms of waste energy, and a similar system for Geelong was under serious investigation.<\/p>\n
Cr Harwood made an \u201copportune\u201d visit to AirAsia\u2019s Malaysia headquarters on the way back from Europe, and returned this week for the airline\u2019s announcement that twice-daily flights between Avalon Airport and Kuala Lumpur (with promotional fares as low as $99) would begin on December 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo not go (this week) would be showing a sense of being dismissive about it; it\u2019s showing our willingness to engage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A report on the UNESCO trip will be presented to the council in late July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CITY of Greater Geelong mayor Bruce Harwood has made a spirited defence of Geelong becoming a\u00a0UNESCO City of Design, saying the costs incurred so far would \u201cpale into insignificance\u201d compared to the potential benefits. The City of Greater Geelong generally and Cr Harwood specifically have been criticised for the mayor\u2019s recent publically funded overseas travel, […]<\/p>\n