Mandurah’s seniors centre Ac-cent will get a name change to reduce confusion among the population about what sort of activities take place in the centre.
The City of Mandurah voted unanimously in support of changing the facility’s name from Ac-cent to Mandurah Seniors and Community Centre on Tuesday night.
In an attempt to attract younger people and to get rid of the old-fashioned connotations of senior citizens, the City changed the centre’s name from Mandurah City Senior Citizens Centre to Ac-cent, as the acronym for Active-Centre, in 2008.
Since the initial name change to Ac-cent the City identified confusion among the local population, who thought Ac-cent was a language learning centre rather than a community centre.
Most of the locals kept referring to the centre as the Seniors Centre despite the name change and services such as ambulance and police had trouble trying to find its location in emergency situations.
Deputy Mayor Darren Lee said Mandurah Seniors and Community Centre would give some identity to the place.
“Ac-cent is too hard to say sometimes,” he said.
The rename will cost the city of Mandurah $4,500 in advertising and marketing costs for the year.