Percy Eccles back municipal control of saleyards.
PERCY Eccles has good reason to be passionate about the future of Warrnambool’s livestock saleyards.
He and his father worked as saleyards employees for a combined total of more than 45 years at the old site on Swan Reserve and the existing yards on Caramut Road.
As a candidate for this month’s council elections the real estate agent has vowed to push for continued municipal ownership of the yards and for the facility to be kept close to the city boundary.
“My preference is for it to stay somewhere on Caramut Road,” he said.
“I would not like to see it go out of council control — it’s one of the few businesses that council owns that makes a profit.
“There’s a lot of economic benefits connected with it.
“Eventually it will have to move from its current site because of city growth so there needs to be regular council dialogue with Moyne Shire to pinpoint a new location — maybe a joint ownership with Moyne.”
He visited the livestock centre this week to discuss the issue with stock agents.
Agents association secretary Gerald Madden welcomed the interest.
“We fought a long campaign against earlier moves to close the yards because we see benefits in keeping it on Caramut Road for as long as possible,” Mr Madden said.
Another of Mr Eccles’ key issues is to reinvigorate the CBD which has numerous vacant shops.