The controversial rose garden project set for the centre of Griffith will not be renamed, despite an attempt from a working group to reshape the public image of the garden.
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At Tuesday night's council meeting, councillors voted against adopting the minutes of the most recent rose garden working group meeting.
If the minutes had been adopted the $300,000 rose garden, which was approved by council in 2019, would have been renamed the Civic Gardens.
Speaking at the meeting, Councillor Dino Zappacosta said renaming the project would help clear confusion surrounding the garden.
"The committee felt that it should have another look at the name as it was felt that the garden itself was not to consist of solely roses," Cr Zappacosta said.
"A lot of people have taken a lot of thrill out of saying this garden will consist of all roses. That is not true and I want that quite public."
Cr Zappacosta said calling the project the Civic Gardens would help to clarify this in the eyes of the community.
Multiple councillors spoke out against approving the name change and called for the project to be reviewed and for the community to be consulted again before going ahead with any changes.
The rose garden has been a controversial topic among the community, with many residents feeling the location and money could be used in better ways.
Councillor Brian Simpson said the opposition from the community was a sign they should rethink the plan.
"Perhaps we erred back in 2018 when we allowed the initial $122,500 from council to be put towards this and we should have gone to community then and asked if it was best for them," Councillor Simpson said.
"Because I have not heard a word in favour of it and it's coming across like a bit of wet bread that is half baked.
"I think we should stick with the rose garden name because that's what was sold to us initially and we should go to the community regarding the name of the actual garden."
Councillor Christine Stead said she was in support of the name change if it meant the project would go out to the community again for consultation.
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Councillors ultimately voted against adopting the working group minutes, and therefore the name change, with seven votes to five.
John Dal Broi, Simon Croce, Dino Zappacosta, Rina Mercuri and Christine Stead were in support of adopting the minutes.
Brian Simpson, Mike Neville, Anne Napoli, Doug Curran, Glen Andreazza, Eddy Mardon and Deb Longhurst voted against the motion.
At this stage the rose garden will go ahead and $300,000 is still set aside for the project in the council budget for 2021/22.
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