Maitland City Council will take steps to secure the long-term future of Maitland Gaol as a leading Hunter tourist attraction.
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At a recent meeting councillors voted to contact the NSW Department of Industries – Lands, to pursue securing a long term tenure of the iconic East Maitland building.
In September 2014, council adopted a report on the future of Maitland Gaol, which saw council reaffirm its in principle support for the operation and ongoing development of the gaol as an iconic tourism attraction.
The report also determined to seek State Government support for undertaking and funding an infrastructure assessment survey and report, to start negotiations with the State Government in relation to finalising lease and maintenance arrangements.
Council’s Marketing and Communications manager Rachel MacLucas, said two years ago council identified that while the gaol was operating successfully as an iconic tourism attraction for the city since 2000, it was increasingly facing significant constraints around its capacity to grow due to lack of long term tenure, deteriorating infrastructure and significant financial constraints.
“It was identified at that time that the existing arrangement was not sustainable and for the attraction to continue it was necessary for decisions to be made regarding its long term future,” Ms MacLucas said.
“Since that time the gaol has continued to operate as a tourism attraction, with staff working hard to maintain visitation to the site, however the capacity to make any real gains has been constrained by the lack of resolution to any of the matters identified in 2014,” she said.
“Fabric and maintenance issues are appearing more frequently placing continually greater strain on the financial viability of the facility.”
Ms MacLucas said a series of steps have been undertaken to resolve issued raised in 2014.
These include developing a maintenance strategy and actively seeking funding to address the maintenance backlog along with the development of a business plan for strategic growth and operation of the facility.