Businessman and tourism figure, Patrick Bedford, to run for mayor in Alice Springs

A new face to politics has put his hand up to run for the Alice Springs’ top job in August.

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BUSINESS man and tourism figure Patrick Bedford has announced he will run for mayor in the Local Government Election in August.

Tourism Central Australia chair, Mr Bedford, said he saw himself as a “progressive” person.

He said he would strive to make the town more family-friendly and look at things such as improving local parks.

“If you take a look at our CBD, it’s in a bit of a state of disrepair. It’s from a bygone era and it needs to be revitalised and revived,” he said.

“That can be done by looking at bringing new business into the CBD, but also a playground with a splash waterpark is needed.

“We live in one of the hottest place in Australia, but the CBD has no shade, no place for kids to play when you’re having a coffee in the mall.

“That and look at how do we get more businesses into that mall to stop it being a ghost town because when you go in there in the evening it’s dead. And that’s the heart of the town.”

Mr Bedford said he would prioritise “building better relationships across all levels of government”.

“It’s about taking the relationships that are currently not in the best state of play at the moment with NTG and building that relationship to where it should be, so that the town is actually on a positive relationship with them and we are able to reap the rewards of that.”

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He also said addressing anti-social behaviour in the town was a top priority.

“[As a tourism figure] I’ve called for a mapping of what the resources there are, but I’ve also think that a curfew is not the approach you want to be taking.

“We need to take a look at what the cause of the issues of this generational problem is and deal with that, whether it’s housing, poverty, or education.

“We need be part of that solution with the other levels of government.”

Making a move towards better environmental habits in the town is also on his agenda – particularly that of moving towards recycling bins.

Mr Bedford joins Aaron Blacker, Kim Hopper and existing councillors, Matt Paterson, Jimmy Cocking, Marli Banks and Eli Melky, as well as former councillor Steve Brown who are also running for mayor.

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