Gold Coast City Council yesterday decided to end negotiation on the purchase of Corporate Centre Two in Bundall.

Following a closed session in which it considered a confidential report, Council voted for the CEO to withdraw from negotiations to purchase the privately-financed building which is presently under construction.

Council also instructed the CEO to undertake a further review of the long term options for workplaces in the city and to report back to Council in six months.  This review is to include all new sites for consideration.

At the same time, in order to inform its future deliberations on staff accommodation, it endorsed a resolution carried on 24 November 2008, for the CEO to bring forward a process to include a tendered design for a cultural heart and iconic ESD workplace at Evandale.

Mayor Ron Clarke said this design would have to ensure that all buildings were constructed or renovated to meet the NABERS 5 star standard in their environmental performance.  He said the design and process was to include:

• a workplace of up 25,000 sq metres

• integration with a whole of site civic and cultural precinct

• enhanced and/or new pedestrian linkages to Surfers paradise

• commercial car parking, and

• adequate opportunities for community feedback and consultation in the design process..

A toy is an object used to have fun. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not strange for adult humans and some non-domesticated animals to play with toys. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. A child may pick up a family circle item and 'fly' it around pretending that it is an airplane, or an animal might play with a pinecone by batting at it, biting it, chasing it, and throwing it up in the air. Some toys are produced primarily as collector's items and are not intended to be played with.

The origin of toys is primeval; dolls representing infants, animals, and soldiers, as well as representations of tools used by adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word "toy" is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century.        

Toys and play in general are an important part of the process of learning about the world and growing up. The young use toys and play to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and buttress lessons from their youth, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills, and decorate their living spaces.

India is a independent nation in Asia, or more distinctively, South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by geological area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democratic state in the world. Bound by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi). It borders Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia.

Home to the Indus dale development and a region of historic trade routes and huge empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's diverse culture. Increasingly annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became a modern nation-state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread peaceful resistance.

India is the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the third largest economy in purchasing rule. Economic reforms have distorted it into the second fastest growing large economy; however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, starvation and environmental degradation. A pluralistic, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic society, India is also home to a multiplicity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.