I would like to add my voice to those against McDonald’s coming to Murwillumbah.
I really don’t like the idea of the entry to Murwillumbah being the golden arches of McDonald’s.
Murwillumbah is a quaint little country town, the gateway to Mt Warning and all the other natural heritage sites that abound in our beautiful area. Do we as a community really want to be remembered by a McDonald’s fast-food outlet. I think not if we are to continue to grow on the tourist dollar.
Murwillumbah’s unique heritage style will soon be overwhelmed by garish multinational businesses like the existing Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet if we let this development go ahead. This area – and Murwillumbah in particular – has a wonderful, colourful and unique flavour that could only come from the Northern Rivers.
The people of Murwillumbah are unique too. We like our small town and we like to support the local businesses that support the town. Murwillumbah has no place for this type of development.
I would argue, too, that the area set aside for this development is the wrong place for a commercial area in general.
Wouldn’t it be better to keep the ugliness that has developed in and around Tweed Heads located off the main entry to town? I am not arguing against having a new shopping area, just that it doesn’t have to be there.
So close to town, and adjacent to our beautiful Tweed River, this land could be set aside for more appropriate developments than industrial, commercial or housing.
Isn’t it about time our community put their creative thinking hats on as to what we could do with this land? Are we really in such a hurry to grab a hamburger that we couldn’t allow the community time to have a say and, more importantly, maybe offer some creative advice?
The council has made some awfully bad decisions in the past few years. It’s time for change. It’s time the council saw itself as a part of community again, and not the ‘corporate image’ reflected by the ugly new council logo.
Julie McNamara
