Public submissions for the proposed Talbragar Street Beautification Project will close on Friday, January 15.

Cr Shields said he has not seen the submissions as of yet, but the "message has been quite clear from retailers that they don't agree with the majority of features of the project."

"If the majority of people don't want the beautification to go ahead then I will not vote for it, and would recommend other councillors also vote it down.

"I don't want to be a mayor that forces decisions on people. I am aware submissions have been flowing in but I have not seen these yet. They will be presented to councillors when the report goes to the council."

A group of Talbragar Street retailers held a meeting on Monday night where they voted against the proposed plans to plant trees in parking spaces and put in a non-broken median strip.

The group said they would put a submission to council before the public deadline.

Cr Shields said the feedback he has received was that retailers didn't "want trees on the edge of the street that may take up a small number of car parks, they don't like a median strip in the centre and they didn't like the planned art."

"Instead they wanted to talk about a multi-storey car park and totally different art on the sidewalk," he said.

"The retailers have also said they don't want any work to take place in 2021 because it is a year where they are recovering from the impacts of years of drought and the COVID-19 pandemic, so council should respect that and not proceed with the plan."

Cr Shields said "modifications could be possible" but any changes would "require staff to scrap this proposal and start from scratch."

"The committee representing retailers has been quite vocal they don't want any works that could impact their trade in the short-term so that would make it quite difficult to achieve."

The issue of parking has also been raised, with Cr Shields saying the street was designed to have high turnover for shoppers.

"Parking along Talbragar is an issue but I am concerned that people aren't adhering to the allotted time for parking," he said.

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