Astroturfing underway at the Phillip Pitch 'n' Putt site

Little_Green_Bag said :

“The real agenda” as you put it is to ensure that almost 8,000 gym members still have a facility when the current Southern Cross Health Club and Anytime Fitness at Phillip close in under three years’ time.

The intention of the letter is to ensure the Southern Cross Club board continues to back the development of the new gyms, and that we do not have a situation like the Hume data centre/power station where a highly vocal, selfish minority were able to scream and yell and ultimately force the scrapping of a new development which would benefit the vast majority.

So can you articulate who the selfish minority are in this case? is it members of Southern Cross who don’t want a redevelopment… therefore it’s inferred they don’t like/want the gym to continue?

Is it people in the wider community that don’t want a redevelopment? or people that use the Pitch ‘n’ Putt site who don’t want it redeveloped?

Have southern cross put forward the building plans for the site? Are you able to link to these, so I can decide for myself if it’s going to be a concrete jungle or not?

I have also found the following:
http://www.wvcc.org.au/wvcc/index.php/develop/proposed-changes-to-the-canberra
http://www.wvcc.org.au/wvcc/index.php/WVCC/submission-woden-pitch-putt

Is there any truth to the ‘possibly some other services’ that the concerned health club member skimmed over is a Hotel? Why isn’t this communicated to people being told to re-elect board members?

I see two parts to the story. 1. Southern Cross want to redevelop the Pitch N Putt site, 2. The lease for the health club is up at the end of 2015.

From where I am sitting, it’s only the Southern Cross club insisting the extension of lease can’t happen without the redevelopment of the Pitch ‘n’ Putt site.

Although I don’t get time to go much, I really enjoy pitch and putt.

shirty_bear said :

… use of the pitch’n’putt is low (from memory, <100 people per day) and it loses (again, from memory) more than $100,000/annum. Hard to argue for its retention….

Valuable land like that is the kind of thing you buy and hold, and hold, and hold, until finally you want to realise a tidy profit by selling it to a developer, or as your own development.
Offering the criticism of “but business currently on that location isn’t turning a profit anymore!” is just a way of justifying the “turning it into a profitable development” step.

(You didn’t also think the Yacht Club was a profitable entity, did you?)

p1 said :

Clubs are actually required to put a certain amount of the pokie ill gotten gains income into support for the community. But it is much to support the community by buying plasma screen TVs to watch the footie on.

I continue to be amazed that this myth persists.
We aren’t NSW (where you can more easily get away with that kind of play).

Wonderful headline.

BicycleCanberra said :

The club takes money out of the community through its Pokies, and should provide these community facilities if it continues to tax the community. $100 000 is nothing compared to the millions it makes from the poker machines.

Clubs are actually required to put a certain amount of the pokie ill gotten gains income into support for the community. But it is much to support the community by buying plasma screen TVs to watch the footie on.

what confuses me is that the bowls club has sat disused for however long, and in my eyes would provide just as viable a site for redevelopment, thus ensuring that Canberra’s finest pitch’n’putt can remain as the tourist attraction it should be. By 2015 every suburb will have a gym anyway?

shirty_bear said :

I, too, would like to see the pitch’n’putt stay. CSCC sent a letter announcing this redevelopment, which stated that use of the pitch’n’putt is low (from memory, <100 people per day) and it loses (again, from memory) more than $100,000/annum. Hard to argue for its retention.

Most recreational facilities as a whole don’t make money but provide the community with a service. What about the lawn bowls? and the indoor basketball stadium. The club takes money out of the community through its Pokies, and should provide these community facilities if it continues to tax the community. $100 000 is nothing compared to the millions it makes from the poker machines.

BicycleCanberra said :

It is important to note that there are plenty of gyms in the Woden area, but there is only one Pitch and Putt( which is the real issue here).

I, too, would like to see the pitch’n’putt stay. CSCC sent a letter announcing this redevelopment, which stated that use of the pitch’n’putt is low (from memory, <100 people per day) and it loses (again, from memory) more than $100,000/annum. Hard to argue for its retention.

You’ll get fit if you play pitch and put, and the fresh air will be much better for you then the air in a gym.

Little_Green_Bag said :

“The real agenda” as you put it is to ensure that almost 8,000 gym members still have a facility when the current Southern Cross Health Club and Anytime Fitness at Phillip close in under three years’ time.

The intention of the letter is to ensure the Southern Cross Club board continues to back the development of the new gyms, and that we do not have a situation like the Hume data centre/power station where a highly vocal, selfish minority were able to scream and yell and ultimately force the scrapping of a new development which would benefit the vast majority.

Yeah, what we need is more buildings that could be a gym (or converted to something else at a later stage).
I mean there’s such a shortage of gyms southside, I couldn’t possibly find another one.
Green space is overated.