AFTER 18 months of waiting to find out if a billboard was allowed to go up on the Princes Highway to encourage more people to turn into Tuross Head, business owners in the village have been disappointed with the outcome.
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The billboard, designed by the Tuross Head Business Owners Association, sought to showcase the sights of Tuross Head to encourage passing travellers to call into the village.
In response to the request, council drafted a town signs on public land policy.
However, the resulting policy did not allow for the style of sign that was proposed for the highway by the Tuross Head Business Owners Association.
Tuross Head Progress Association president Lei Parker said that for the past 12 months, council did nothing other than pass the request for permission to erect the sign from one department to another.
He said the only possible town signs on public land that the newly-written policy would apply to in the shire were in Tuross Head.
“All other possible signs, similar to the landscape billboard by Tuross, will be on either privately-owned land or within the Roads and Maritime Services controlled road reserve and not covered by this policy,” he said.
He said the policy, as it was written, did not even allow the existing Tuross Head business sign and map or the town sign, which had been there for more than 30 years on Hector McWilliam Drive.
Mr Parker said more than 100 businesses in Tuross relied directly and indirectly on tourism.
Although the town reaches capacity in summer, Mr Parker said the sign was to be an invitation for the rest of the year when tourist numbers dropped.
“Too often travellers just drive by the intersection not knowing what gems there are to see in Tuross,” he said.
“Eurobodalla tourism promotes Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma and our Tuross residents are left with little off-season employment opportunities and our holiday houses remain under-utilised,” Mr Parker said.
Mayor Lindsay Brown said the draft policy would provide opportunities for communities to promote their town or village with a simple, consistent and attractive form of signage that is sensitive to its location.
“The draft policy was developed in response to a number of requests for town signs from across Eurobodalla,” Cr Brown said.
“The existing legislation was quite general and did not set out exactly how town and village signs should be developed.”
The draft town signs on local land policy will go on exhibition from September 3 to October 1 and residents are invited to have their say.
Copies of the policy can be viewed online at www.esc.nsw.gov.au or at Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma libraries and at Council’s customer service centre in Moruya.