Voice of Byron

The project took out the RH Dougherty Award for Excellence in Communication at the recent NSW Local Government Awards.

Mayor Simon Richardson said for many in our shire, it was a fulfilling project to work on.

“It started with an internal conversation over street furniture.  From here we saw the overwhelming need to holistically  draw together the elements of our popular seaside town.

“We rallied the community and established the Bounce Group to help guide the process and provide the sounding board.

“Conversations and workshops over an 18 months period saw us arrive at a robust Masterplan that will help guide the look and feel of our town over the next ten years.

“Whilst the plan is about key sites and the structure of town, it is our residents who use the space that needed to have ownership of the process.  We needed to ensure that our local voice, identity and values were captured.

“With the help of expert consultants McGregor Coxall and their team we’ve developed a Masterplan that was achievable, exciting and well supported,” he said.

Council general manager Ken Gainger said the Masterplan helped connect many staff, across differing areas, to the community and the project.

“During its development we needed to bring together planners, traffic management, outdoor, open space, property, finance and economic development and link them to the community.

“The project has helped build staff capacity which is invaluable in helping us build the next masterplan for Mullumbimby, Bangalow and Ocean Shores,” he said.

You can read the Byron Bay Town Centre Masterplan at www.byron.nsw.gov.au/byron-bay-masterplan

Judges’ comments:

An outstanding campaign that created a sense of community ownership beyond the duration of the project. The approach – of varying the range of activities from quarter to quarter – in order to engage fresh stakeholders during the 18-month project life was inventive. Council also demonstrated clever ways to engage with the hard to reach. A stand out feature of the project was the formation of the community ‘Bounce Group’. This approach was strategic and a great way to disseminate information, evaluate campaign progress and strengthen community ownership of the project. The fun and hands-on elements of the campaign were an excellent way to generate awareness and assist people to visualise challenging planning concepts.

Source: http://www.lgnsw.org.au/events-training/local-government-week-awards-evening

The first initiatives to flow from the Masterplan are seven place making initiatives that will transform underutilised public places and laneways through beautification, creativity and people; plus the reconstruction of Byron Street linking pedestrians to Butler Street across the disused rail corridor and the activation of Railway and the rail corridor precinct.

Back in  June, the Byron Bay Town Centre Masterplan took out the Communities category of the Australia Institute of Landscape Architects.  The entry needed to demonstrate engagement, recognition and interpretation of the communities’ values.