Whyalla City Council has listened to the community, with elected members resolving at this week’s Council meeting to undertake works to the foreshore cafe to enable its safe and compliant operation.

Nearly one third of respondents to a recent community survey indicated their support for this option, which will see the existing building retrofitted as a café.

In order to meet legal requirements for health, food preparation, safety and building regulations, the decision was made to close the café in January this year.

Council then committed to undertake further research with the community to explore what options would be acceptable for a service offering located at the café site in the future.

Mayor Clare McLaughlin was pleased that a decision had been made and thanked those people who had taken the time to participate in the survey.

“This survey, along with feedback from our community forum a few weeks ago, has given us a clear indication of community sentiment in regards to the foreshore building,” Mayor McLaughlin said.

“It’s clear that the majority of respondents expect a café service at the foreshore, and we will next undertake a tender process to engage a contractor to carry out the necessary works, as well as expressions of interest for an operator of the new-look facility.

“This is yet another example of Council working with the community to find a suitable outcome.”

More than 1600 people completed the survey (almost 1500 from Whyalla), representing nearly 10% of the city’s adult population, which is considered a sound and comprehensive statistical representation of the community.

As well as survey feedback, the final decision was also weighted against the financial impact to Council (assuming a five-year life of the facility), with the retrofitted café considered to be the best option given current circumstances.

These building upgrades have been budgeted at $230,000 and, once a contractor has been engaged, work will commence as soon as possible on the retrofitted café.

Mayor McLaughlin reiterated that Council is keen to work collaboratively on the future of the entire foreshore precinct, as it prepares to conduct extensive community consultation in the coming weeks.

“The café upgrade is only about the short-term future of a small portion of the foreshore, ” Mayor McLaughlin said.

“We now want to focus on an exciting piece of work with the development of a broad-reaching, long-term Foreshore Master Plan.

“It’s critical that this plan reflects the needs and expectations of our entire community, so a significant focus of the project will be on community engagement and feedback.

“I urge everyone to have a think about what they would like to see long-term and make sure they contribute their ideas during this planning phase.  We want to hear everyone’s voice through this process to ensure the Master Plan reflects our community’s aspiration for this important part of our city.”

Council will provide ongoing updates to the community on both the progress of the café work, and the Foreshore Master Plan community consultation process.

Extensive detail on the community survey and Council’s considerations regarding the upgrade decision is contained from page 127 onwards of this month’s Council agenda (found on the ‘Minutes & Agendas’ section of Council’s website).