Strategic Plan Update: New sign to draw Tweed tourists

by Rick Koenig
11th Apr 2018 4:00 PM

BUSINESS operators have been forced to take the Tweed’s reputation into their own hands, applying for a grant to beautify the entry to the shire from Gold Coast Airport.

Calls by the community and local councillors to do something about the shabby entryway have for years fallen on deaf ears, with neither the State Government nor Tweed Shire Council willing to take responsibility for the upkeep of the road which connects the airport to the Pacific Highway.

Now, just in time for the Commonwealth Games, a new 250m banner bearing the words “Discover the Tweed” has been erected.

It signifies the beginning of work due to improve the roadway – the end of the Gold Coast Highway – after the Tweed Heads and District Chamber of Commerce successfully applied for a $48,000 grant from the State Government.

Councillor Warren Polglase said the idea behind the banner was about “stimulating and marketing the Tweed”, with the new banner featuring photos of many of the activities that can be done in the Tweed which he hopes will create tourism.

“We believed that we needed to do something active in getting people to look at coming to the Tweed to support the area,” Cr Polglase said.

“Nothing was done by council so the chamber took it upon themselves to step outside the square and do something about it.”

Cr Polgase said the area had needed a fix up for “a long time” including installing signage and cleaning graffiti.

“There was graffiti on the walls there, the grass was a metre high, its been like that for years and we’ve been endeavouring to do something about it, we got people to slash all the grass there and got the banner put up,” he said.

Cr Polgase said the response to the new banner had been “nothing but positive”.

He said a special thanks needed to be given to committee member Julie West, who was the driving force behind gaining funds for the banner’s production.

Original story source: www.tweeddailynews.com.au/news/new-sign-to-draw-tweed-tourists/3384754/