Heavenly Beverley : The Face of Things to Come in Heavenly Beverley.

Wednesday, 19 August 2015

The Face of Things to Come in Heavenly Beverley.

Yesterday was one of those really feel good days. I was pretty tired by the shenanigans of the previous day, which had involved five hours driving, five hours for Alex in Emergency, two and a half hours of me with him in Emergency, half an hour of him packing his stuff to come up and stay with us for a week and an urgent pit stop at Subway to feed Alex, who had been given nothing but water and Nurofen whilst he was monitored! I had already rushed into Gilberts' Fresh on the way out to grab one of their excellent pizzas.

Anyway, I digressed. Tuesday morning brought our Shire President, our Shire CEO and our Shire Planner to walk the beat of the main drag and talk to all the businesses about some exciting proposed development of the town centre.

So, I opened the East End Gallery, busied myself with dusting and washing up and waited for our Shire reps to arrive. Meanwhile, Michael, Gary and Simon were creating a din to raise the dead in the back of shop 4 - which I am currently referring to as the "bomb site".

The reconstruction of the floor is continuing at full throttle. Two-thirds of the steel support beams have been concreted into their foundations in the ground. The boys' names have duly been added to the concrete. The welding of these beams has occurred.

Fortunately, the noise had more or less abated by the time the three of them came through our doors. We took them on a tour. Stefan, our Planner, had not been inside the Forbes building since its days BR - before renovations. I was delighted to see he was actually gobsmacked by the progress of the restoration.

I made tea and coffee for Stefan, Dee and Steve and we sat down to discuss the Vincent Street Streetscape Project. This has been a work in progress for some years and we understand that the proposed redevelopment will take some more years to be realised.

But the ideas are wonderful. Street trees for much-needed shade in summer. Designation of intersections. Parking areas to be gravelled. Wider footpaths outside the eateries and hotels. Link roads behind the main town centre. Underground power. Public art space. Redevelopment of the town's Federation Square (I added my two cents worth asked for a wheelchair swing for kids in the playgroup) and a proposed multipurpose community centre.

The latest proposal - to have a free twenty-four hour RV parking area next to the river looks like getting off the ground in the near future. That will be yet another drawcard for Beverley to receive more visitors.

There will be lots of consultation and the funding proposal is for the next financial year. We owe it to ourselves here in beautiful downtown Beverley to be proactive, positive and involved. Michael and I already know what a fantastic town we live in. We have slow but steadily creeping tourism growth here because people are stopping, admiring and talking. They like what they see. We are, I believe, on the cusp to offer a diverse, attractive and innovative town all within a day's drive of Perth.

The streetscape development will just enhance what is already a terrific little country town for both visitors and residents.

Stay tuned.

P.S. :
If anyone has an extremely wealthy maiden aunt who would like to leave her millions to a very deserving cause, the Shire of Beverley would be thrilled with any funding additions from other sources.