27/08/2025
Seymour Community Wellbeing Hub – Do the plans match our expectations?
Mitchell Shire is calling for feedback for their ‘Concept Design’ for the Community Wellbeing Hub by 3 September 2025. Information about this important project is online at https://engagingmitchellshire.com/seymour-wellbeing-hub.
The Seymour We Want has been supporting and providing feedback for this process for a number of years. We note that from the first round of feedback in June 2024 that some changes have been made in response to feedback, including ours. Some of this feedback includes the need for a full time Community Development Worker to be based in the building, the community space being accessible on the ground floor, and maintaining the existing library structure at least while the new facility is being built.
We are now at another critical moment in the design of this facility, influencing the facilities that our community can gain access to in the coming decades. There is much good about this project, upgrading the Library, creating more community spaces for use, providing consulting rooms etc for professional services that we currently need to travel for.
Some areas of concern that we have.
Community Meeting Room
• Size - at just 122 m2 this facility can only hold 100 people sitting in rows. This is not a Community Hall in which community meetings, community meals, Carols events, dances etc can be held. Can we double or triple the size of this room? It seems it is not possible given budget restraints to build a community Hall.
- The average new build house in Australia is double this size according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Community Kitchen – this needs a servery into the Community Meeting room to allow for easy catering for community events.
• Passive solar design. This room has potential for passive solar heating in winter & cooling via deciduous trees in summer.
• Can the smaller community rooms be incorporated into the larger Meeting Room?
Community Café (A great idea)
•There is only space for 4 people to sit inside in the design. This is not enough for a Café to be financially viable.
- Can we enclose/semi-enclose some of the southern veranda area to enable outside eating area?
Library
• We note that this is similar size to the existing Library space.
• Technology upgrades are welcome.
• Limited space for community study/work. There is just 4 computer spaces. In comparison there is space for 20 workplaces in the upstairs staff room, which coincidentally is the same size as the community meeting room.
Opportunity for Community us in times of emergency.
• If the building was equipped with a battery it could provide important relief for our community. This could become a venue our community is encouraged to make use.
- In extreme heat/cold community can gather to help reduce cost of living pressures
- In flood, fire, blackouts etc community could use the kitchen area to provide for their families.
Existing Library
• An existing community Space that could be repurposed.
- A key issue above is the lack of space for community meetings, study/work areas, and other activities. We have a building that the Council says has become too expensive to maintain yet have not released any costings for what too expensive means.
- At the Listening tour event on 13 August there was clear feedback from Council that if our community had a good use for the existing Library building, and finance to look after it then the council would consider whether the building could be kept.
- Imagine if we could have a tool library, repair Café, …
- What use can you think of for this space?
These are some of the feedback The Seymour We Want will be providing to the Council as it seeks to make this facility the best it possibly can. We encourage you to consider the plans and make your own submission before the cut off date of Wednesday 3 September 2025. Feedback can be emailed to council at
[email protected] or complete the online survey found at https://engagingmitchellshire.com/seymour-wellbeing-hub.
Let’s provide the feedback council want to help create The Seymour We Want.
Michael Easton
President – The Seymour We Want.
Email to council NOW at
[email protected]
