As many Tweed households struggle with rising energy bills, the Living for the Future Home Expo and Community Summit will bring together a range of local product and service providers with solutions to cut water and power bills, make homes more environmentally sustainable and more liveable for people of all ages.

However, Mayor of Tweed, Councillor Barry Longland, said the expo and summit were also designed to encourage public discussions to make Tweed Shire more environmentally and socially sustainable - at the level of individual homes, neighbourhoods and the wider community.

Visit the Living for the Future Home Expo and Community Summit page for full details of stallholders, speakers, special offer and more.

Click here to tell us what information you would like to see included at the event.

Council's Sustainability Program Leader, Deb Firestone, said: "Trade stalls will make it easy for people to see all the options available when designing a new home or retrofitting an existing house.

"At the same time, experts on many issues of sustainability - such as home design, energy and water efficiency devices, recycling, growing food and healthy communities - will participate in a series of discussion panels."

Ms Firestone said the panels and presentations would explore how to make the Tweed more environmentally and socially sustainable.

"We're also inviting community members to contribute their ideas for a more sustainable Tweed, and that includes Council planning and actions could help achieve this goal," she said.

"There are some amazing, innovative and affordable solutions being adopted in other areas and this event will examine how they can be adapted to the Tweed environment and the lifestyles of our residents.

"We're encouraging people to share their opinions on how Tweed households can save power and water, live more sustainably and more cohesively as a community."

For further information, contact Debbie Firestone on (02) 6670 2555.

The inaugural Tweed Shire Access and Inclusion Awards are being staged by Council to celebrate the efforts of individuals and organisations to make Tweed Shire more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

"These awards will be held each year to heighten awareness, commitment and action to create opportunities and remove barriers so everyone can participate fully in the Tweed community," Council's Aged and Disability Community Development Officer, Karen Collins, said.

In conjunction with the awards, a new short film competition is being held to promote issues of access and inclusion in the region.

The competition, open to all Northern Rivers and Gold Coast residents, give film makers the chance to explore the ideas of access and social inclusion for everyone and to answer the question 'in what ways have universal access and social inclusion influenced your life, your story and your community?'.

Click here to find out more or to submit an entry.

"We are inviting people to create a film of up to three minutes on the theme My Life, My Story, My Community," Council's Aged and Disability Development Officer, Karen Collins, said.

Entry to the competition is free and will close on Friday 15 November 2013.

Members of the community will then be able to view the entries on Council's website and vote for their favourites, to choose a shortlist of six finalists.

"Those shortlisted films will then be screened at the Tweed Access and Inclusion Awards presentation ceremony on 3 December, where the film competition winners will be announced," Ms Collins said.

"The competition isn't just open to accomplished film makers, we're encouraging everyone to get creative and tell their stories."

The competition includes an Open category for all entrants, as well as a Youth division for Under 18s, but each film can only be entered in one category.

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Council is planning to complete an upgrade of the streetscape in the Tweed Heads central business district - pending confirmation of a publically announced grant of $613,184 from the Federal Government - and is liaising with neighbouring businesses to finalise the design.

The project will cost almost $1 million, including Federal Government and Tweed Shire Council contributions, and will complete a revitalisation of the CBD streetscape, to create a more vibrant and attractive commercial hub, after the first stage of works was undertaken 10 years ago.

Click here to see the plans.

Stage 2 will upgrade two sites:

• Site 1 - Bay Street between Sands and Enid Streets
• Site 2 - Wharf Street between Florence and Frances Streets

It will bring Bay Street and the remaining area of Wharf Street up to the same level of streetscape as Wharf Street from Griffith Street to Frances Street.

Stage 2 works are currently scheduled to begin in early 2014 and will:

• plant more shade trees along pedestrian routes and next to car parking
• make the two sites more pedestrian friendly
• rationalise and improve car parking

A more attractive and functional streetscape will complement and encourage the arrival of new businesses into the CBD.

Schedule

Planning and designing for Stage 2 is expected to be finalised this year and, pending confirmation of the Federal Government grant, construction is scheduled to begin in February 2014, to avoid disruptions during the Christmas shopping and holiday period.

Click here to provide your feedback.

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