A drop-in session was held at the Harwood Island Hall on Wednesday afternoon, for the community to view the progress of the Harwood Riverside and Village Precinct Plan.
Clarence Valley Council (CVC) Economic Development Manager Liz Fairweather said that up until now the CVC Communications and Engagement team have conducted(a few) community workshops,within the Harwood community.
“We’ve developed a community economic development plan, which has taken (onboard) all the aspirations of the community, of the things that they would like to see happen in Harwood,such as events and other things; and a component of that was infrastructure,” Ms Fairweather said.
“So, we’ve taken that information and from there we’ve engaged some urban design consultants CLOUSTON Associates – the same group that designed the Maclean Riverside Precinct, Ulmarra Riverside Precinct and Grafton Riverside Precinct.CLOUSTON’s have developed a draft plan taking the aspirations of the community and put it on paper.
“Wednesday’s drop-in session was ultimately going (back) to the community and saying, ‘is this what you told us that you wanted’?
“So, all that feedback (from Wednesday’s community drop-in session) will be taken onboard and CLOUSTON’s will go away and refine the draft plan again,” she said.
MS Fairweather said that so far, the community have wanted greater connection to the river and a bit more order around that riverside precinct.
“So, what CLOUSTON’s have done is created a bit more around that riverside precinct,” she said.
“They also see the opportunity associated with the new Harwood Bridge, that’s a tourist attraction, for people to come off and see that – creating some points where people can come off the M1, do a bit of shopping, eating and drinking or whatever and also take some lovely photos.
“The other thing would be to incorporate some interpretive signage that would tell the story of Harwood; there are some quite strong connections in Harwood with our first nations people andHarwood has a collaborative community, so there is the opportunity to tell those stories and even their contribution to the cane industry in this area, and that sort of thing. There are some really good synergies around that.
The next stage (of the draft plan) is to go out to other stake holders; traditional owners, the sugar mill, sporting organisations (The Harwood Cricket Club), the RMS, Fisheries; all those sort of stakeholders, also have to be engaged in the process as well.
The draft plan will then go to council to ask if we can put the draft plan on (a 28 day) public exhibition,” she said.
Julies vision for Harwood: www.clarencevalleynews.com.au/julies-vision-for-harwood