Deck the Poles - Yuletide in Goodwood

Not exactly dazzling. Not exactly marketing.

The 2016 street Christmas Decorations, sponsored by the Goodwood Road Business Association (GRBA). Okay they were made by kids. Nobody wants to be unkind to kids. But what the kids made is not the point. The point is that the GRBA's budget of over $70,000 comes largely from a Marketing Levy imposed on businesses. Is this Marketing? Is it screaming at you of festivity, lavish spending and bustling excitement?

And further - why would anyone give a task as important as marketing business to children?

We gather that a "community artist" was engaged at the GRBA's expense to work with school children to execute "artworks" on the chain wire fence of Goodwood Primary that faces Goodwood Road. The Chair of the GRBA says the project is "ongoing" which suggests a continuing drain on the group's resources. Only a small part of the GRBA's funds is actually spent on marketing, often promoting a handful of individual businesses. A whopping 40% goes on administration while an unspecified amount goes on community development projects like the Goodwood Primary School fence. 



 

Leg-tied to a Lame Duck

Traders in the Goodwood Road Precinct have been effectively baled up and held captive by Unley Council and its offshoot, the Goodwood Road Business Association. This is how it works.

 Unley Council collects a compulsory levy from us via our rates* and in return we can, if we choose, be members of the Business Association. Sounds fine, doesn't it, until you realize this is not a real business association. It was set up by Council for its own purposes. They even wrote the constitution. 

A major role of a business association, you would think, is to advocate on behalf of its members, but not this one. If you've ever approached the Association with an issue such as disruption caused by the Council's streetscaping project, you would have been told this is not the concern of the Association - and that's correct. It isn't. The GRBA has no lobbying role. You could argue that this is pretty convenient for Unley Council.

From a trader's point of view the GRBA is a lame duck, and one we are leg-tied to because they've got our money.

Some $50,000 a year!

"But" I hear you say, "They are there to promote business. That has to be good for traders."

Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you?



*City of Unley Business Plan Summary 2015-16 : "A separate rate is levied against certain commercial properties along Unley, King William, Goodwood, Fullarton and Glen Osmond Roads. The Council has determined to raise a separate rate, for the purposes of the promotion of the business and traders located along major shopping strips."