MARKET CALL

Jack Ings of Gerringong Sunrise Rotary Club.

KIAMA Council is calling for public comment on a proposal to hold markets in the Old School Park, Gerringong.

The call follows two recently received development applications from Gerringong and Gerroa Business Associations and Gerringong Sunrise Rotary Club, who are each keen to run any markets that may be introduced to the site.

Both applications propose the holding of a produce and local goods market every second Saturday of the month.

We are really keen to utilise the area for something positive without interfering with the rest of the public, said Mr Jack Ings from the Gerringong Sunrise Rotary Club.

We would be looking to put around 36 stalls in, with 22 on the southern end and the rest would be both north and west of the childrens playground to enable the public to still have full use of these facilities.

Confident the Rotary club would have the numbers to successfully hold bi-monthly local produce markets Mr Ing said he believed that the markets could attract a lot of business into town.

We have no shortage of people who are willing to help. All our members are very enthusiastic about this project, he said. We anticipate it will provide a huge boost to local business by bringing a lot of people into town. It is amazing the amount of people who follow markets around.

We have talked to a lot of producers around the area and they are all willing to get a store so there is no real reason that this wont work. You quite often find that Rotarians are in fact local business owners themselves so we definitely have the business acumen to make this a success.

Director Strategic and Commercial services at Kiama Council Chris Quigley said the markets at Kiama and Jamberoo had already proven themselves a great benefit to the community and he anticipated a similar success for any markets held in Gerringong.