Liberal Senator for Victoria Sarah Henderson said she is concerned that four City of Greater Bendigo sites are being decommissioned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"The sites are being decommissioned despite no decision being made on the sale of the site," Ms Henderson said.
Only approved staff will be granted access to four sites from Monday, including the former main office at Lyttleton Terrace.
Council's director of corporate performance Andrew Cooney says the sites will be decommissioned to make them safer and secure.
Services such as heating, cooling and cleaning will cease, but security will remain present.
Ms Henderson said any decision on the future of the GovHub project must be delayed until the coronavirus pandemic is over.
"I remain concerned about the lack of transparency and information which has been provided to the ratepayers of Bendigo, including the overall cost," Ms Henderson said.
Bendigo's GovHub proposes to bring 1000 public sectors jobs into the CBD.
A new building is slated to replace the existing one at Lyttleton Terrace, with council making an in-principle decision to sell the site to the state government.
Local resident Max Turner is furious at what he calls council's "willful and disrespectful arrogance" towards those who oppose the sale.
"There has been no final decision to sell the land," Mr Turner said.
"There has been no information on the site's value, simply nothing but silence and a refusal to answer fair and reasonable questions on GovHub."
Victorian National Party leader Peter Walsh says given council can't meet face-to-face, the most responsible decision would be to put this whole project on hold.
"Hundreds of locals recently signed a petition calling for more transparency," Mr Walsh said.
"They sent strong message to the state government that the community wants to see the evidence that this project is in their best interests."
Mr Cooney disagrees that decommissioning the sites is preempting a sale and says nothing about the GovHub project has been a secret.
"The steps we have taken have been planned and public," Mr Cooney said.
"There is a small group of people in Bendigo opposed to this and a number of mistruths being spread."
Mr Cooney says council continues to work through the GovHub sales process with Victoria's Valuer-General.
"We are doing our best to get the site ready and sold to the state government as soon as we can," Mr Cooney said.
"Nothing that we have seen shows that this project will be hampered by anything to do with coronavirus."
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.
