Garden City Community Information Centre to close after 21 years

THE Community Information Centre at Garden City will close on December 21 due to the shopping centre’s redevelopment.

After 21 years of helping the community with various issues, about 30 volunteers will no longer be required, although the Justice of the Peace service will be retained inside the shopping centre’s new customer lounge.

A motion at the City of Melville’s Annual General Meeting of Electors on December 5 called on the City to help the volunteers.

Centre coordinator Elaine Buchan said the volunteers would miss giving back to the community.

“We knew that it would be refurbished and stores around us closed,” she said.

“I believe we will be sadly missed but it’s good that the JPs will still be located at the shopping centre.”

Volunteer Cathy Grasso said she started at the centre a few months after it opened in 1997.

“I think we will be missed, there are still people who come in and ask us for help,” she said.

Volunteer Maureen Pallot said because it was the digital age, she believed the centre had reached its used by date.

“People these days are able to jump onto the internet to get the information that we provide,” she said.

An AMP Capital spokeswoman said in the lead-up to the start of the redevelopment, a number of retailers would be relocated.

“In regards to the Community Information Centre, Garden City has worked closely with the City of Melville, JP Service and Community Information volunteers over a number of months to retain some of its core services, with the JP Service to relocate into the new Customer Lounge on January 7, 2019,” she said.

“We understand that volunteers are an important part of our local community and as the volunteers are independent they may decide to progress as a self-managed group.

“In the meantime, the City of Melville has offered individuals the opportunity to fill new volunteer roles through the City’s Volunteer Resource Centre network.”