It was an opportunity for community members to have their say.
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About 70 people gathered at Club Taree on Friday, August 17 for a consultation session in relation to MidCoast Council’s proposed tourism branding name ‘Barrington Coast’.
The forum was chaired by independent tourism branding organisation Destination North Coast NSW and endorsed by Member for Myall Lakes Stephen Bromhead.
Mr Bromhead said the session provided an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts on the name.
“People got up and spoke for two to three minutes about their view on the topic, whether they liked or disliked it and what it should be.
“Everyone was passionate and had good ideas,” Mr Bromhead said.
Mr Bromhead said the consensus of the group was that ‘Barrington Coast’ is not the way to go.
It's up to council what they do with it.
- Stephen Bromhead, Member for Myall Lakes
“They (community members) want the community to own it, they want it to be community driven.
“They are not averse to having a name.
“At the same time, they are not averse to having an overarching name, providing you promote each area (Manning, Great Lakes and Gloucester) under that overarching name but Barrington Coast wasn’t it,” Mr Bromhead said.
Several speakers at the forum discussed the possibility of running a competition to create a name.
“There’s a lot of great minds and a lot of great ideas out there,” Mr Bromhead said.
Mr Bromhead encouraged council to hear the concerns and views of the community.
“I think if council delay it, there’s no hurry. Council will not lose money.
“I think they should listen, put it off a bit, go through a process where they really engage with the community in every area including Gloucester and give everybody a say.
“At the end of the day, whatever name they come up with after giving the community the opportunity to be part of it and part of the process, I’m sure whatever name comes out then everyone will go ‘yep, that’s for us’,” Mr Bromhead said.
Councillors Peter Epov, Kathryn Bell and Jan McWilliams, who voted against the motion at council’s July 25 ordinary meeting, attended the session.
A second session was held later in the day at Forster.
All notes from the sessions will be collated by Destination North Coast and relayed back to Mr Bromhead and MidCoast Council.
‘Barrington Coast’ was endorsed as the destination name at council’s July 25 ordinary meeting before a rescission motion was received.
The motion will be dealt with at the August 22 ordinary meeting.
