And now for some real detail to the discussion that has occupied some locals for some weeks – ever since the spectre of any new plans for a new jail for Tamworth first hit the headlines.
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The council has denied all along it is being disingenuous, deceptive or at the head of some conspiracy or secret squirrel stuff when it comes to jail plans.
The issue has also engulfed local politician Kevin Anderson who understandably has copped an earful from people erupting around him. It’s one of those subjects a sitting member is loath to have burning away slowly, charring the other issues of the day and giving you angst. Especially a few months out from an election.
On Tuesday night, Tamworth Regional Council moved to bite the bullet – it will write to the state government to find out whether it is interested in any further development of a new local correctional centre.
That will clear the air – and determine where we go from here.
It will do it hand-in-hand with a concept plan it has been sitting on for a couple of years that would deliver an innovative triangulated renewable energy plant for the city, if it found the right partners, if it found the capital to underpin it and if the climate, so to speak, was also right.
The concept is for a centre that would use renewable energy to generate electricity to power lighting, heat, gas and hot water for a correctional centre – it’s part of a commercial case including a couple of other big industrial partners the council has identified as part of the equation.
Since the first unsubstantiated and unconfirmed reports surfaced about so called plans that exist for a jail in Tamworth, there has been the predictable uproar, furore and fearful warnings.
A group of concerned residents, on the back of a rumor that the council had already earmarked a block of land it was said to have owned for years on Oxley Ln for the jail site, and that there existed plans for a jail of some 600 inmates or up to 1000 inmates, mobilised.
The council has consistently and persistently denied this. But they also say they want to ensure a corrective services facility, here for the past 60 years or so, would remain, or be superseded by a new facility.
Whether that will come to pass, or where that will be, is nowhere near being decided, discussed or designed.
The fact TRC has its waste water dam and re-use farm off the Duri-Wallamore and New Winton roads, just a stone’s throw away, might have influenced some stories.
Most might understand the apprehension of those who live nearby, so far. Sorting rumor and innuendo from fact gives us all time to take a breath.
