Wollombi Planning
Date: 11-Mar-10
Author: Peter Firminger
This Saturday morning at 10am, Cessnock Council will be holding a "Cessnock 2020 Community Plan Workshop" at Wollombi Hall.
More below but details here. If you can't make that one, there will be another at Millfield next Thursday from 6pm.
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Saturday evening, the Sydney Balalaika Orchestra will hold a fundraiser at Laguna Hall... for Laguna Hall. Details here
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I'd also like to give you a heads up that we are in the early stages of planning a local Arts, Crafts and Produce Competition and Exhibition to co-incide with the Wollombi Valley Country Fair this year. The details and a firm proposal are still being worked through but at this stage it is agreed in principle that the Arts Council will probably oversee it - with me (and possibly Janine Oliver) running it and that the likely venue will be Wollombi Hall.
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Further to my comments on Sunday about the Clause 10 (CLEP 1989) issue in the Draft LEP, Paul and Priscilla Flemming have provided further information which can be viewed from the news section of Wollombi Valley Online (two stories, one with an attachment). It's very interesting that both sides of the zoning issue have come together on this in a very powerful way - at least as far as the Working Party is concerned.
There will also be at least one report from yesterday's (dysfunctional) LEP Working Party meeting on the website when I have time to write it and another member of the party has already provided detailed feedback to the group and the chairs which I am awaiting permission to put on public record.
Community Planning
You may not have seen the Cessnock Council Social and Cultural Plan 2009 - 2014. I picked up a couple of hard copies last night to place around for people to look at (one now at Wollombi Store and one soon at Laguna Store) but it is available on the link above as 10 PDFs (be careful of Chapter 8 as it is 32 MB - the rest are under 1 MB).
An extract of chapter 7 reads:
Starting Point - Community Based Information Centres for Cessnock and Wollombi
Many of those who attended the consultation processes believed that the establishment of a community/tourist information centre in the CBD of Cessnock was a key element in attracting visitors to the centre of Cessnock. Apart from informing visitors of the attractions of the town and its surroundings, it served the purpose of encouraging people to stop in the town. Once at rest, it would provide opportunities for them to actually see what was there, spend money and support the local economy.
At present, it is too easy for visitors to drive through Cessnock en route to the vineyards, visit the Wine Country Tourism Centre and concentrate their time in the vineyards area.
A similar sentiment was articulated for Wollombi, where some kind of tourist information presence could also serve to inform visitors of the Wollombi Valley's history, heritage and attractions.
A trial tourist information centre is currently underway in Kurri Kurri, where the town is seeking to capitalise on the success of its murals and the Nostalgia Festival.
The recent launch of the Sustainable Cessnock strategy makes consideration of such a suggestion timely.
WHAT IS COUNCIL GOING TO DO?
