January 19th, 2022Your Say – Hepburn Hub at The Rex

Let me take you back. Before council ever got involved in The Rex Arcade, the community had a functioning cinema in a privately-owned building.

I was part of the cinema committee that stood in the street and collected donations so the young people of this town could have a holiday program of films.
Items from the St Kilda film festival would be shown in Daylesford and on bleak mid-winter nights there was an inexpensive way to meet friends, support local cafes and see a film currently showing in big cities. All of it funded by the community.
We wrote grant applications and philanthropic trusts like the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust gave us $23,000 because of the positive social impacts of a community cinema which would reduce isolation and support mental health outcomes.
The Blues Brothers film night, right, was a hoot and $140,000 was donated overall by the community to pay for seats, soundproofing and projection. The Hepburn Shire Council gave us a $2000 grant. The second committee of volunteers took this vision and the cinema and went to a new level to sustain the cinema as a viable business in the future.
The rest is a bad case of Yes Minister since Hepburn Shire Council got involved.
Blaming past councils and administrations for the mismanagement of the contract to repurpose The Rex building demonstrates an appalling lack of leadership.
With $6 million of costs sunk, plus $140,000 of community donations gone, the amount of money involved is staggering and with nothing to show for it.
I strongly suggest council review its misguided decision to abandon The Rex project and complete the works so that Daylesford can again benefit from a cinema and other facilities.
If this is not the case, I would be looking to an external review of contract management and governance processes used by council surrounding this project, given the vast amount of money involved.
There must be accountability to the community. How a project can, after many years and with such a waste of money reach this point, is ripe for external investigation.

• Nora Vitins, Daylesford