No referendum on demolition: council

City of Busselton councillors put up a united front on Wednesday night as they stood firm in their decision to demolish Busselton's Nautical Lady tower, following a special electors' meeting on Monday night.

Councillors voted unanimously at Wednesday's council meeting to not proceed with a referendum on the issue and to continue with plans to demolish the tower as soon as possible.

Monday night's debate spilled over into Wednesday's meetings, with supporters of the tower and those in favour of a demolition at the chambers to again state their case and hear the outcomes.

The meeting was heated at times and saw members of the public walk out, with councillor Jenny Green moving the motion to receive the minutes from Monday's meeting and to not proceed with a referendum.

Cr Green said statements the tower was an icon or landmark were simply not true and she said there were issues with access, safety and stability of the viewing platform and the building.

Acting Mayor Grant Henley chaired the meeting and said it was seldom that the council could please "all of the people, all of the time".

"Our role on council is to make strategic plans, directions or decisions," he said.

"It could have been gone two years ago."

Each councillor spoke in favour of plans to demolish the tower, with a unanimous vote achieved 8-0.

The City was expecting there would be a number of people attending Wednesday's meeting and had staff on hand to assist in crowd control if it was needed.

After the outcome, supporter Bill Gillbard said the meeting had deteriorated into a character assassination of both the tower and its builder, David Couch.

"The outcome of the meeting was decided before the council meeting, obviously, as when the time came to move a motion it was to disregard the results of the electors' meeting and each councillor spoke for the motion," he said.

"The tower came under attack using observation and innuendo not substantiated by any engineers' report, that didn't exist anyhow. From then on, David's character was attacked in a most disgraceful way."

Mr Gillbard said he was saddened by the loss and added he believed the feelings of the public would be shown during Local Government elections in October.

Efforts to save the tower included a bid by supporters to have the tower listed on the Heritage Council's State register, with representatives from the Heritage Council stating while the tower may have some "cultural significance", it did not have any heritage significance.

After Wednesday's meeting, Credaro manager Matt Credaro told the _Times _he did not wish to make a comment about the Nautical Lady, as it was a "sensitive issue".

However, he did say the overall master plan of the Busselton Foreshore was very positive.