A BID to keep more entertainment in Peel St during the country music festival has fallen over after retailers failed to stump-up the cash.
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The Tamworth Business Chamber stalled council’s plan to reopen the main drag to traffic between Brisbane and Bourke Streets during the 2018 country music festival by proposing to manage events on the block.
The chamber failed to secure money from businesses on the affected block which was needed by the August deadline to lock-in entertainment for the festival, and on Tuesday said it had “no option” but to hand management of the block back to council.
The chamber said the outcome was “disappointing”. Tamworth Regional Council General Manager Paul Bennett confirmed to The Leader staff would prepare a report for next Tuesday’s meeting recommending councillors, once again, endorse opening the block to traffic.
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President Jye Segboer said the chamber’s bid to keep the street closed was to support small business.
“We were only asking businesses to commit to $50-a-day over the 10-day festival,” Mr Segboer said.
“If what we were hearing from these operators was correct - that they could potentially lose up to 60 per cent of their trade during this time – the small financial commitment is not a large amount.”
Mr Segboer said “small businesses didn’t want to support themselves” and that the chamber has the “experience and expertise” running events, pointing to its success with the recent business awards.
“It wasn’t ever really about the money, it was more about getting a commitment from the businesses to allow the chamber to dedicate the time and resources to help them,” he said. “Our role as a chamber is to support and advocate for local business and we did this.
“Without support from the businesses, I cannot justify the misappropriation of our loyal members and sponsors funds.”
Councillors will consider a vote on the original proposal at their next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
Mr Bennett said the proposal to reopen the street was based on a decrease in activity over a number of years.
“People talk about the ‘good old days’, but in the good old days Tamworth didn’t have 80 venues widely dispersed over the city,” he said.
Council’s Director of Business and Community, John Sommerlad, had previously said efforts to attract traders to the block had been “unsuccessful”.