Friday 5 March 2010

New Honeysuckle campus not the right choice for city revitalisation, say Greens



Newcastle Greens
MEDIA RELEASE
5 March 2010


Newcastle Greens today questioned the choice of a Honeysuckle site for the start of a new city campus.

“Today’s announcement that the first new city campus building will be in the Honeysuckle area will greatly disappoint people who were hoping that a city campus would help revitalise the Newcastle CBD,” Newcastle Greens councillor Michael Osborne said.

“The new university building will be remote from the areas most in need of revitalisation

“The Greens have strongly supported the establishment of a new city campus as a key revitalisation strategy for the Newcastle CBD, but we have argued throughout the process that it should be focussed where city revitalisation is most needed.
“Honeysuckle does not need revitalisation.

“In fact, the state government’s Honeysuckle development – which was originally marketed as “a new heart” for the city - has actually contributed to the demise of the older Newcastle CBD by attracting commercial activity away from it.

“To fulfil the revitalisation objective, new university buildings should be located in, or at least closer to, the traditional CBD, and integrated with existing university buildings in the Civic precinct (in the Hunter/Auckland/King St area)”.

Councillor Osborne said it was not clear how the “Honeysuckle campus” would be integrated with a CBD campus.

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