Riverside Park foreshore to receive a sustainable redesign

Published on 22 July 2021

Kempsey Shire Council is commencing a project to redesign Kempsey’s Riverside Park to further enhance its usability and flood readiness.

Riverside Park is a popular and valuable community resource that hosts an array of popular community events and Council is developing a new design for the riverbank foreshore that will:

• provide protection against erosion and remedy existing erosion
• increase the usability and enjoyment of the area
• improve the ability for Council to restore the site after a flood

A key focus for the project is to improve the community’s opportunities to use the foreshore, therefore community engagement will be key to the project.

The development of erosion protection and flood recovery measures involves many complex processes and engineering concepts, as such technical requirements will also be a major deciding factor in designs.

The first stage of the project will see the creation of three preliminary options for the foreshore. A preferred option will then be selected after these are presented to a community and stakeholder workshop arranged by external consultants as well as being exhibited on Your Say Macleay for broad community response.

The results of this project will feed into the forthcoming Kempsey CBD Master Plan for the area and further community engagement will happen around this plan as it is developed.

While Council is committed to the foreshore redesign, this is the first phase of a long-term project and no specific construction works are planned at this stage