About 40 people attended the workshop held at the Cessnock Community Performing Arts Centre facilitated by Ian Mackey.

Mayor of Cessnock, Cr. Alison Davey, said it is an exciting project and that funds are available to implement it.

She said the workshop wanted ideas and to see an outcome in the next 12 months.

Ian said community development is about people reaching a decision to initiate a social action process to change the economic, social, cultural and environmental situation in a town.

Lengthy discussion took place in the forum that included lengthening the runway at Cessnock Airport to allow for larger commercial flights to bring tourists here, setting up a five star caravan park, a main street festival and multicultural day.

A beer and beef festival involving local hotels was also put forward similar to the Seafood and Semillon event held in the vineyards.

Other suggestions out forward included the need for weekend trading, a wine heritage theme for the main street and photo or art displays in vacant shops.

While some way off, there was a suggestion that when the F3 link road is built, there should be expansive signage directing travelers through Cessnock and onto Wine Country.

These are just some of the ideas put forward to develop a strong and sustainable city, and while most ideas focused on future initiatives, some complained about lack of sevices that need to be addresses.

Mr. Mackey will prepare a report on the ideas put forward and present the findings to council and Cessnock Wine Country Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber would then meet and decide a top six priorities to achieve over the next 12 months.