Plans to change Bendigo's Hargreaves Mall spark debate

Hargreaves Mall's reopening to traffic appears off the table after being deemed too expensive and dangerous in a new City of Greater Bendigo report which states any move to re-open the stretch of road between Williamson St and Mitchell St could cost between $3 million and $5 million.

City of Greater Bendigo Council will decide whether to keep the road closed at a meeting on Monday, September 25, where they will also consider a three-year action plan to revitalise the mall.

Below is a snapshot of what readers' views on the issue:

Unless people feel safe they will continue to avoid the mall.

I do, even in the quieter daylight times. Why get accosted?

Returning a lane of traffic helps this. Retailer pockets made the decision for them, so they are mostly gone.

New hotels are decades away, if ever.

I'd love to know which Myer entrances are the most popular. Mall or other? Retailers need customers whenever they are open, just not when the occasional crowd makes people feel safe enough to venture in.

When will this council stop wasting our rate payers money and open the Mall to traffic.

The retailers have voted with their feet and left. Nationally and globally Malls are reopening to traffic, they are a failed experiment. Now we are committed to another 3 years of wasted money which will achieve nothing.

Any changes to the Mall should be focused on increasing patronage and foot traffic to encourage retail, hospitality and services businesses to return.

Further landscaping and one off events such as putting on movies are futile and a waste of money as they do not help solve the problem. Ask yourself the question, would you take the risk of opening a business in the Mall today because of Council's plans?

In my view, opening the Mall to limited traffic is part of the solution but it needs to be part of an overarching plan to encourage businesses to come back.

Rate holidays to landlords should also be considered to provide rent relief aimed at attracting the right types of businesses, such as cafes and hospitality. Rate holidays could also be used as a tool to give rent relief to existing businesses (such as Officeworks) to open their Mall facing doors.

The Council claiming they have no way of influencing landlords and their tenants, is a cop out. The Council has an important roll in creating the right environment for businesses to take a risk on the Mall.

We also need to acknowledge that Bendigo is by and large car dependent and will continue to be as we transition to electric power. Electric chargers could be installed to help cater for this and help the city meet its climate targets.

We need fresh thinking which is focused on achieving outcomes, not defending past decisions and the status quo.

It is a "no brainer" for council to re-open Hargreaves Mall to vehicular traffic. The ideas floated by previous writers on this subject today are spot on. (Shepparton and Townsville have re-opened their malls which are a thing of the past). These are perfect examples of why Bendigo should go the same way. If it is a cost barrier to the council, then place a one-off surcharge on us ratepayers. The economic payback will be enormous to the Bendigo community. I for one, am sick and tired of seeing empty dirty shops and "undesirables along with their anti-social behaviour loitering our beautiful city.

Malls are great. They work in Europe (in Lithuania, in Kaunas they have a mall hundreds of years old and it is one kilometre long). It works very well and they can work here. There are enough noisy cars already in Bendigo and it's great to get away from them. I remember the street being open years ago and it used to work but there were no large shopping centres and a lot of people did not have cars, they walked to central Bendigo or caught a tram. When late night shopping first came in the mall was packed out every Friday night. Sure we need to improve the mall, and it's good to see it busy during the school holidays and the warmer months. As an ex draftsman and once Telstra worker I can assure readers that what lies under the ground in central Bendigo is horrible, everything from lead phone cables to earthenware pipes, leaking galvanised iron gas pipes, tree roots, yellow rock, granite and more. A lot of us think about how things were different but once the Genie is out of the bottle there is no turning back.

Some years ago somebody opined that mall traders were leaving in droves because the rents & other overheads simply made small business there unviable. Why must the inner city be a shopping precinct any way? Because it is traditional? Maybe the site could be redeveloped into high rise inner city apartments. Just a thought, thinking outside the box.

I have never heard such rubbish from a town going backwards in its CBD. As a former president of the Bendigo Retail Traders Association I am amazed that any forward thinking business/council could not see that malls are a thing of the past throughout Australia. Former malls in Townsville, for example, have seen that after closure and re-opening of the mall to traffic, businesses have thrived. Our council does not need to fly all over the country wasting money to ascertain the value in closing malls, just contact those councils that have and wake up to your failure to act responsibly here in Bendigo.

Shepparton have redesigned their mall. It has a single lane of traffic along one side, with parallel parking and a speed limit of 20kph. There were quite a few seats dotted around and plenty of people shopping. It felt safe and inviting.

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"Could cost between $3 million and $5 million." Cheap, when compared to council's regular useless makeover.

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