The State Government and Brisbane City Council should join forces to resume the Walton's building, long-term local councillor David Hinchliffe believes.
The Central Ward councillor sees the resumption as the long-term solution to the abrupt closure in early December of a crucial public walkway through the heritage-listed Walton's building. Traders in the adjoining Happy Valley and McWhirters Centre have seen their trade slashed in the six weeks since the walkway was closed.
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Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has slammed Premier Anna Bligh’s decision to delay local government elections as “disgraceful".
Cr Quirk said local government had always had four-year fixed terms and there was no justifiable reason for this to be delayed.
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More than a month after a vital Fortitude Valley pedestrian walkway was closed abruptly for maintenance that has never taken place, desperate nearby businesses face the prospect of closing their doors for good.
Hardest hit by the shock closure on Monday 12 December have been Cheung’s Cafe and Cakes and Loc Discounts in the Happy Valley building right beside the barricaded and locked walkway, and a host of McWhirters traders who have also seen their passing potential customer trade reduced from some thousands a day to just a small fraction of that. Other businesses beyond that have also suffered losses. As the walkway closure – on a 20-metre section in the old Walton’s Building – drags on, shops have cut back their trading days and hours and some have already begun to shed staff in a bid to stay afloat.
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More suburban households than ever before are ready to take whatever Brisbane’s summer storms throw at them, thanks to Council’s Brisbane – Ready for Summer campaign.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said his $300,000 awareness campaign had already had a huge response from residents keen to do everything they could to protect their homes and families.
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Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley will play host to the 2012 Valley Chinese New Year Festival from January 20 to 22. Presented by Brisbane City Council, the annual street festival of music, dance, song and cuisine is one of the most important celebrations in the Lunar Chinese calendar.
In Asian culture, the Chinese New Year is also known as the Lunar New Year. It is the oldest and most important festivity in the Chinese lunar calendar where people from all over Asia celebrate for new hope, wealth, health and fortune for the coming New Year. Brisbane’s Chinatown Mall will be full of fabulous activities featuring Chinese culture and beliefs throughout three days of street celebration.
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The “Father of Chinatown” Eddie Liu has been singled out for special mention in a book of photographs taken by long-serving and retiring councillor David Hinchliffe. The Central Ward councillor took the snaps for a special book Faces Of Chinatown to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chinatown mall.
It will be launched at this month’s Chinese New Year’s Eve celebrations. In his foreword to the book, Cr Hinchliffe says: “It has been a great honour to represent Chinatown and the local community as city councillor for the last 24 years.
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A meeting of worried McWhirters Centre traders has voted to investigate the possibility of a class action law suit to try to recover their losses from the month-long Walton’s walkway closure.
But the overriding messages from the 10 January meeting of several dozen business owners in the central Valley’s main retail precinct is that the doors have to be reopened ... and ownership of the walkway placed in public hands so it can never ever be closed again to put the livelihoods of local businesses at risk.
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Goodwill totally lacking
Corey Hamilton, owner of the Autographed Memorabilia shop in McWhirters Centre, is doubtful the closed walkway is going to open any time soon – and points to a total lack of goodwill being shown by the owners of the Happy Valley and Walton’s buildings, not only to each other but to all the business people suffering as a result.
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Ann Brunswick
Mungo MacCallum
Tim Milfull
David Bray
Ivor Thurston
Don Gordon Brown
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