As part of Council's investment in upgrading its assets and infrastructure, a review of public amenities across the shire is currently underway.
In our most recent community survey, a significant number of responses suggested a review of the public amenities should be completed, including identification of facilities which may be enhanced, as a medium to high priority for Dorrigo, Bellingen and Urunga.
On review against other like councils within NSW it was identified that Bellingen Shire Council has a considerably higher number of public amenities per capita by a significant margin. As such, our constrained maintenance budget is more thinly spread across a higher number of facilities and impacts on the associated level of service that we can provide to the community.
Process
The intent of the review is to allow for targeted investment in a rationalised number of publicly accessible facilities to improve the level of service provided to our community and visitors.
To progress this, an assessment was made of the geographical location and separation of existing public amenities to establish the following:
- Group 1 – 24/7 public access - Is the existing public amenity located in a key public area which supports visitation to the community and should be available 24/7 (eg. major public parks or central business areas). These may be supplemented by amenities available through other commercial operations (eg. service station).
- Group 2 – Community event access - Is the existing public amenity located in a public area which supports community activities which can be made available during specific events (eg. sporting fields) but closed at other times.
- Group 3 – Surplus to community needs - Is the existing public amenity in close proximity to another suitable facility which warrants that it could be removed without a significant reduction to the overall level of service provided within the community.
In response to this, Council staff have undertaken an assessment of facilities across our region including in Dorrigo, Bellingen, Mylestom, Thora and Urunga.
The main observation of staff is that a number of facilities are identified as Group 2 (community event access) which are required for regular community events (eg. sporting competition) but are not necessarily required to be publicly accessible 24/7.
In consideration of this preliminary assessment, Council will consult with S355 Committees who operate assets (for example sportsgrounds) which include an identified Group 2 amenity to investigate options for the ongoing management of these amenities.
Provide your feedback
Community input is a vital part of this review, to provide feedback on Councils proposal for an amenity block please fill out the form below.
If you would like to provide feedback on more than one amenity block, please complete a separate submission for each one. This will help Council gain a better understanding of each facility individually and it's respective priority level.
Submissions close 5:00pm, 31 October 2025.