WITH Orange City Council’s efforts focused on improving the number of jobs available across the region, it remains unclear how many have been created.
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Councillor Kevin Duffy demanded to know how successful efforts had been after he queried the Economic Development Committee’s activities, including investigating a possible caravan park.
“I think it’s great to have action plans, but when are we going to see the number of jobs we’ve got?” he said.
“Even though we play a facilitating role, how many do we help?”
General manager Garry Styles said while the council might work with some businesses to help them start, it could not take full credit for the jobs they brought.
“We’ll say we had a role in it, but it’s a matter of those people making that announcement,” he said.
Councillor Jeff Whitton, who chairs the committee, said it would re-focus on jobs growth and, after the meeting, he said council staff had started compiling figures.
“It was more focused on tourism and bringing people to the city, but we want to get back to what our real role was, trying to understand what the businesses are and how can we help them to grow and generate new businesses coming to the city,” he said.
Cr Whitton said he wanted to know about businesses who used Orange as a base and how they achieved success.
When mayor John Davis was elected for his 11th term in September, he said there was potential for up to 2000 job opportunities - he cited Paraway Pastoral’s move to Orange in November and believed much of the balance would be made up from a planned private hospital and Mission Australia aged-care facility at Bloomfield, and redevelopment work at the former base hospital site, although none had proceeded.
“January’s a quiet period where everyone’s on holidays and they’re only just starting to get into the swing of things - looking around, there seems to be a positive outlook,” he said.
The council and the state government co-funded the $60,000 Grow Local campaign last year, targeted at businesses either directly affected by the Electrolux closure or planning to employ more people.
So far Wangarang Industries, Botanical Innovations and Adagio Alpaca Mills have each benefited from $5000 grants and potential applicants are encouraged to contact the council.
danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au