WAGGA City Council stands by its decision to combine Youth Week and Seniors Week into the FRESH festival, despite heavy criticism from senior residents.
Four scheduled workshops and events have already been scrapped from the program due to undersubscription.
Now, a pair of senior Wagga residents have openly branded the festival a “disappointment”, criticising a lack of publicity and community engagement.
“I don’t think it’s gone particularly well at all,” former councillor Mary Kidson said.
“Seniors across the city have always looked forward to Seniors Week and from what I’ve seen and heard, the whole combination of youth and seniors has just been a complete flop.”
Senior Citizens Club vice-president Ellen Downey said the club had begun running its own functions out of protest, such was the prevailing sentiment against FRESH.
“I and many others are pretty unhappy with the whole affair,” she said.
“It’s been very poorly done and poorly managed, in my opinion.”
Mrs Downey said the new format was too long and too expensive for senior residents, many of whom required more notice to save for these events.
“A whole month of activities at that price, it’s too much,” she said.
Council staff defended the fledgling event on Wednesday, stating feedback has been “100 per cent” positive so far.
“We have received evaluation forms back from four of the activities to date and 100 per cent of all respondents were satisfied with the event they attended with the majority rating it as excellent,” community development officer Victoria Lowe said.
Ms Lowe said the cancellation of four events was “similar to previous years” and said council would consider running FRESH again in 2019.
“Council greatly appreciates all community feedback about the festival and will utilise the evaluation forms to determine recommended activities for 2019,” she said.
However, Mrs Kidson said she had personally submitted two evaluations forms with “overwhelmingly negative” feedback.
“The whole thing’s been a failure,” she said.
