South Tamworth $3.5m business complex and daycare centre

The 8000-square-metre development is located on The Ringers Road, near the Longyard Hotel, and contains four commercial offices, an industrial retail space and a cafe.

Two of the blocks have already been reserved for a childcare centre and an associated pool, while another will become the new headquarters for construction company G.J. Gardner Homes, who are also building the complex.

Tamworth councillor and South Tamworth resident Mark Rodda said the development was “nothing but positive for the area”, particularly given the Arcadia housing development is expected to bring an additional 1600 houses and 5000 people to the southern end of the city.

“That will probably cap off the facilities and services available in that area for the ever enlarging suburbs of Hillvue and South Tamworth,” Cr Rodda said.

The business complex will be next to a new specialist medical centre, and Cr Rodda suggested “the only thing missing now is a supermarket”.

Tamworth Business Chamber president Jye Segboer said the childcare centre was particularly pleasing news.

“Although we’ve had three childcare centres open in the last 12 months, they’re already at capacity, so there is certainly a need for more,” Mr Segboer said.

“It’s a wonderful thing, because it means young families are moving to the area and staying. The more childcare centres the better. They're the sorts of facilities people look at when they're considering moving to Tamworth, and we want to ensure we continue to grow the population.”

The development application includes plans for an 82-space car park, and says the new precinct was “unlikely to have an significant impact” on local traffic flows and intersection performance.

However, Cr Rodda said the patch of New England Hwy between Calala and AELEC was already overdue for an upgrade, and urged the state government to put the road on its priority list.

“With any increase in traffic, we are going to see additional time delays in those areas,” Cr Rodda said.

“You can see it’s a problem now, and I would like to think that we start preparing for it now, rather than leave it to be dealt with in the future.”