During this week's ordinary meeting, local resident Brian Sainty called on Griffith City Council to reverse the decision to build a rose garden on the plot of land next to the Visitor's Centre.

Mr Sainty spoke on behalf of the New Griffith Regional Art Gallery committee, who are pushing for the city's new gallery to be built on the site currently set aside for the garden.

According to Mr Sainty, who previously served on council's rose garden working group, the surface at the site is currently "unsuitable" for the proposed garden.

"Much of the top soil has been replaced by stones and sand which will have to be excavated and replaced with top soil, which only raises more issues of water penetration that will need addressing," Mr Sainty said.

"What ever the issues and potential problems, nothing has been done to identify or quantify them or plan and cost any amelioration required to fix them."

Mr Sainty described the state of Griffith's current gardens as "disgraceful" and questioned if council has the capacity to maintain another large site.

He also slammed the $600,000 cost of the garden as "an absolute disgrace", suggesting the garden at the earmarked site should only cost $200,000 all up.

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He finished by calling for the money to instead be spent on revamping current gardens or on an alternative project on the site, such as his committee's new art gallery.

"We are sure of one thing, the proposed rose garden will attract almost no new tourists to Griffith and no new tourism income," Mr Sainty said.

"Whereas an alternative, such as a new purpose-built art gallery, will bring thousands of new tourists and their dollars."

Griffith City Council are currently in the process of determining a suitable site for the new art gallery, after committing to deliver the building in the next five years at a meeting earlier this month.

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