Everything from promoting pop-up shops to reconfiguring roundabouts is being considered by Dubbo Regional Council as part of a long-term plan to revitalise the Wellington Town Centre.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Following a request from councillor Greg Mohr, council has developed the draft Wellington Town Centre Plan. It looks at short, medium and long-term actions that can be undertaken to boost the town.
In the draft plan, council's senior growth planner Carmel O'Connor said the overall aim of the document was "to address the demise of the Wellington Town Centre and to provide a framework to encourage investment and that supports the revitalisation of the centre".
"Over recent years, the Wellington Town Centre has experienced a significant decline in retail activity, which is currently reflected in a 27 per cent vacancy rate of shop fronts at ground floor level," Ms O'Connor said.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
"The vacancy rate in turns contributes to a lack of activity in the centre and has flow-on effects for the entire centre."
The plan will be placed on public exhibition for two months and stakeholders and community groups will be contacted to share their views on the ideas.
Cr Mohr has urged the public to look and and review the draft Wellington Town Centre plan.
"The Wellington community needs to jump on board and have their say on how their town should look now and into the future. We're giving them the opportunity for that," he said.
"I encourage them to come forward and have some constructive participation in this so we can have Wellington up to a very good standard in the future."
Once the public consultation period is undertaken the feedback will be considered and the plan will go back to council.
Actions have already been identified that can be achieved across the next two, four or six years.
Some short term ideas include creating a tourism brochure showing some of the town's heritage sites, encouraging markets to be held in the CBD and a themed entrance at the Lee and Gibson streets roundabout.
Longer projects include council investigating the possibility of purchasing the former Caltex service station site to turn it into a community garden, developing a community hub and improving the supermarket car park access.