TAMWORTH council will tear down the McKellar stage in Bicentennial Park potentially clearing the path to build a new performance area.
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On Wednesday, the council announced it would tear down the 30-year-old stage following "significant deterioration" in recent months.
"While there has been some repair work done, recent inspections have revealed there is a need to demolish it as a matter of public health and safety," the council's sport and recreation manager Paul Kelly said.
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The demolition of the old stage was a bone of contention among the councillors last year.
According to its current five year cultural plan, the council will build a new permanent stage, but some councillors questioned the benefit of new structure.
The detractors said it would become an "habitat for antisocial behaviour" and it wouldn't see much use outside of the country music festival.
It took the mayor's casting vote to keep the new stage proposal in the cultural plan.
The old stage is also a memorial to former mayor Norman McKellar.
The council has met Mr McKellar's family and agreed to remove the two dedicated plaques and reinstall them somewhere else in the park.
Elsewhere, the council has also filled in a pond near Number One Oval after it was found to be leaking about 60,000 litres of bore water per day.
The council currently reviewing its Bicentennial Park master-plan.
"However, right now being in the grip of a severe drought councillors agreed the most water-wise and cost effective move is to fill it in," Mr Kelly said.