Central Maitland’s heritage could be used to revitalise the city centre in dramatic and unusual ways.
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Maitland City Council will put its Heritage Interpretation Master Plan on public exhibition after councillors last night approved the draft document.
The revitalisation of central Maitland was sparked after figures showed the number of residents in the city centre had dropped by two thirds between 1954 and 2009.
The master plan is designed to interpret the city’s heritage to create themes and attractions to draw businesses, visitors and residents back to the heart of Maitland.
This includes potentially revitalising the city’s laneway network, installing giant pieces of public art in the city centre and the University of Newcastle’s Collaborative Environments for Creative Arts Research (CeCAR) project.
CeCAR is designed to use cutting-edge academic projects in a practical way to boost tourism and businesses by developing innovative attractions such as robot soccer matches at The Levee or interactive public artworks.
Project co-ordinator professor Richard Vella said he chose Maitland especially as the test site for the program.
At last night’s council meeting, Cr Bob Geoghegan said CeCAR would fit well with plans to rejuvenate central Maitland.
“The CeCAR project will dovetail nicely with the master plan, it’s very exciting,” he said.
“I’m also glad that in terms of funding we are talking about sponsorship for things like public art installations, I think that will be very well received.”
Cr Loretta Baker said the master plan would put life and soul back into the city.
“It’s opened Maitland up to every possibility,” she said.
“It brings together things like tourism and the arts. I’m sure we will achieve a number of the initiatives.”
The master plan will go on public exhibition at council for 28 days and is downloadable at www.maitland.nsw.gov.au
The Mercury will take a closer look at individual initiatives outlined in the master plan over the next few days to give the community a closer glimpse at how the future might look like for the city.