Minutes of the Tourist Attraction Signposting Assessment Committee Southern Region Meeting
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TASAC Minutes 17 September 2014 Minutes of the Tourist Attraction Signposting Assessment Committee Southern Region meeting Wednesday 17 September 2014 at the Executive Boardroom, Novotel Wollongong Northbeach Hotel, North Wollongong Members David Douglas Regional Coordinator TASAC and Drive, Destination NSW Phil Oliver Guidance and Delineation Manager, Roads & Maritime Services (RMS) Maria Zannetides TASAC Secretariat Also present Mark Sleigh General Manager, Destination Wollongong Tom Phillips Executive Officer, South Coast Regional Tourism Organisation Diane Johnston Manager, Tourism Shellharbour Steve Rosa Group Manager, Destination Southern Highlands Steve Lawson Tourism Manager, Shoalhaven City Council Dean Simmonds Manager, Network and Safety Services RMS Southern Jesse Fogg Traffic Engineer, RMS Southern AGENDA ITEMS 1. DELEGATIONS / PRESENTATIONS & REGIONAL SIGNPOSTING ISSUES 1.1 Wollongong signposting issues Mark raised the following matters: i. Vandalised directional (white on green) and tourist (white on brown) signage on Mount Keira Road and Clive Bissell Drive The tourist signs at the above intersection are for Keira Lookout. Wollongong Council is responsible for both roads and is therefore also responsible for the maintenance of signage on them. The lookout is also signposted from the intersection of Mount Keira Road and Picton Road (an RMS road) but these signs are in good condition. ii. Sign on Lawrence Hargrave Drive at Bald Hill A sign that welcomes visitors to the South Coast tourism region at the above location gives the distances to the Shellharbour and Kiama Visitor Information Centres (VICs) but not to the Wollongong VIC. Action: RMS to review the sign and advise Council about amendments. 1.2 Wingecarribee welcome signs and tourist drives Steve Rosa briefed the meeting about proposals by Wingecarribee Shire Council to develop a suite of new entry and locality signs to welcome visitors to the Shire and tabled a document outlining the designs and locations of four sign types, which are discussed below. Final 29 September 2014 1 of 13 TASAC Minutes 17 September 2014 a. Regional Gateway Signs There are three existing regional gateway signs at locations within Wingecarribee Shire (on the motorway coming in to Mittagong, at Macquarie Pass and near Fitzroy Falls) that welcome visitors to “Capital Country”. However, this is the name of a regional tourism organisation that no longer exists and Council considers that these should be replaced with signs to welcome visitors to the “Southern Highlands”. TASAC comments i. RMS will audit the locations of the existing regional gateway signs to identify all that are in place. Action: David to raise the matter within Destination NSW to see what can be done and inform Steve. b. Main Shire Entry Signs Council proposes to install large (8 m by 4 m) billboard style advertising signs on private land adjacent to the Hume Highway at Yerrinbool and Paddy’s River Crossing. The design envisaged is for the right hand half of the sign to be occupied by a full colour image of a sandstone gorge and waterfall with four symbols along the bottom third of the image. Text on the other half of the billboard will have the legend “Southern Highlands Sydney Can Wait, Take the Next Exit” in white sans serif lettering on a mid-blue background. TASAC comments Billboard style advertising signs on private property outside the road reserve are not in TASAC’s area of responsibility. However, in accordance with the procedures of State Environmental Planning Policy No. 64, RMS would be consulted about the signs at the development application stage with regard to any potential safety issues. c. Rural Shire Entry Signs Rural Shire Entry signs are proposed at seven entries to the LGA (Wombeyan Caves, Penrose, Balmoral, Yerrinbool, Fitzroy Falls, Robertson and Jamberoo). All but one of the locations are in the reserves of RMS roads. The signs are intended to replace ones installed in 2007, some of which are damaged or otherwise in poor condition. The design of these signs is similar to that of the Main Shire Entry signs except that: The size of the proposed panels is 3.5 m by 1.8 m. Instead of symbols, the logos of Wingecarribee Shire Council and Tourism Southern Highlands would appear below the image on the right hand side. The text on the left hand half of the panel would be “welcome to the Southern Highlands” in large lettering and “Wingecarribee Shire Traditional Land of the Gundungurra and Dharawal Peoples” in smaller lettering. TASAC comments The provisions of the NSW Tourist Signposting Manual (p 94) relating to shire entry signs (identified as local council welcome signs in the Manual) stipulate that the signs: Final 29 September 2014 2 of 13 TASAC Minutes 17 September 2014 i. Must not be installed in the reserve of any motorways. ii. Must “welcome road users to a local government area name and not a regional name on any other basis”. Therefore, the Council’s design needs to be amended to include text to say “Welcome to Wingecarribee Shire” in lettering that is large enough, relative to the size of the sign, to be safely and easily read by motorists. “Southern Highlands” may also appear on the signs. iii. May use any range of colours providing that they do not look like replica directional, regulatory or warning signs. Therefore, Council’s preferred mid-blue background for the signs must be different from the blue that is used on RMS “white on blue” service signs. iv. Must not contain photographic images. v. Must not direct traffic in any way. vi. Must be erected in a safe location with structures outside the “clear zone”. Councils must obtain the concurrence of RMS as to the suitability of the location and design as required by the Roads Act. vii. Are subject to space being available in the road reserve for their erection. The proposed signs are too large and some of the text on the designs is too small to be safely read. Therefore, Council needs to reduce the amount of text on the signs and ensure that all text is large enough to be read. Shire entry signs do not need to be retro-reflective as they do not replace RMS locality or guide signs. d. Locality Signs Council proposes to replace 53 locality signs involving 75 double-sided signs in a phased rollout and funding has been allocated for the project. The signs would be square panels with white lettering on a mid-blue background as follows: LOCALITY UPPER KANGAROO VALLEY WINGECARRIBEE SHIRE Traditional Land of the Gundungurra and Dharawal Peoples The Southern Highlands and Council logos would appear on a white background at the bottom of each sign. TASAC comments i. The sign design does not comply with RMS requirements including that there is too much information and some of the text is too small and it could not be safely read by passing motorists. RMS research indicates that motorists tend to ignore locality signs Final 29 September 2014 3 of 13 TASAC Minutes 17 September 2014 that have too much information as they are perceived as marketing signs and not guide signs. Therefore, Council needs to reduce the amount of text on the signs and ensure that all text is large enough to be able to be read safely. ii. The signs must be retro-reflective. iii. Council’s preferred mid-blue background for the signs must be different from the blue that is used on RMS “white on blue” service signs. It was also noted that new national standards for sign installations have been introduced since 2007. It will therefore be necessary to check the structural integrity of all posts supporting existing entry signs and Council should not assume that it will be able to replace existing sign plates with new ones. The next steps for Council are to consult with Council committees and make a formal submission to TASAC and RMS for approval. Actions: (a) Secretariat to provide the above advice to Council. (b) Steve Rosa to provide more information about the location of the Shire entry and locality signs to RMS so it can respond in more detail. 1.3 Shoalhaven signage issues a. Directional signage for Huskisson and Vincentia Steve Lawson has been approached by representatives of the Huskisson and Vincentia communities regarding the need for improved directional signage to both towns on the Princes Highway. It is understood that there is some directional signage for motorists coming from the south but no such signage for the reverse direction. Phil and Dean explained that Jervis Bay is the primary focal point in the locality and the existing directional signage reflects that. It was agreed that RMS would review signage in the area and provide advice to Steve. Note: Following inquiries he made after the meeting Phil advised that RMS had reviewed intersections in the area mid-year and designs for new directional signs that include Huskisson were already progressed awaiting installation. All the signs have been ordered and he expected that installation would occur in the next few weeks. RMS is not in a position to put any additional focal points on the sign designs and therefore they will not include Vincentia. b. Silos Winery tourist signposting Steve raised safety concerns regarding existing tourist signposting for Silos Winery at Jaspers Brush. He described a sign on the Princes Highway that informs visitors they are 300 m from the winery’s entry whereas the sign is only 100 m from the entry. TASAC has not assessed the eligibility of Silos Winery for tourist signposting during the last five years. Therefore any previous eligibility has lapsed. Dean agreed to review the winery’s signposting from a safety point of view and determine what needs to be done to rectify any concerns.