Orange residents and visitors would love a leisurely 850-metre stroll to the CBD. No one wants to park close to their destination or undercover to avoid the elements or even in a well-lit area. What a well-thought-out use for this public recreation area.

Just because the area is “fairly heavily used as an ad hoc recreation area, particularly for small children”, why should children have a safe place, away from traffic to play?

A place where anyone can learn to ride and be taught bike safety. A place where families can have picnics, perhaps play handball and hopscotch. A place where friends can meet for some “ad hoc” fitness training. Perhaps even a place that could accommodate all the markets that Orange hosts?

As if we need more public areas near the CBD that could be developed into a beautiful, family-friendly recreational area, where locals and visitors can relax and unwind.

We don't need any other drawcards to our city when we have our ‘Myer Museum’ in the centre of our CBD, obviously creating the need for another car park. Not one that's close enough to be of any use, but one that is far enough away to remain mostly empty.

This would allow it to be available for many varied uses, some maybe unsavoury, and some maybe even a little bit illegal.

The sounds of cars, motorbikes, motor homes, the odd 360-degree burnout, some bottles breaking and maybe a little heated disagreement day and night should be music to the ears of the nearby residents after tolerating those raucous netball players every Saturday.

Sometimes they even had a carnival on a Sunday, and even training some afternoons. Don't even mention that they have to be bombarded with the melodic sounds of children playing, during the day. Who wants to be subjected to that?

“The flooding is a furthy” and “rarely occurs in that area” – what a revelation. The residents in this area that can't insure their homes against flooding will be ecstatic.

So let’s not waste ratepayers’ money on beautifying our city. Let’s not provide designated play areas and picnic facilities near the CBD for the community and our visitors.

Let’s instead change the zoning of a public recreation area under the pretense of using it for temporary parking, then spend a bucket load of money to make it look like we really did intend to use it for parking.

Then when that proves to be an epic fail, we will just happen to have had the zoning changed so we can use the area for what it has already been ear marked – “a possible residential site”.

This was outlined in the executive summary requested from mayor Reg Kidd and tabled at the council meeting on Tuesday, May 1.