A $5 million dollar upgrade of Mitchell Street, Stockton is now complete after 18 months of construction.
The town centre works began in March 2021 and include a widened footpath, a tree increase from three to 40, speed bumps, a smoothed road surface, street furniture, improved drainage and four new historical signs designed in collaboration with Stockton Historical Society.
The signs detail history about current and former local sites, including the Savoy Theatre, senior citizen's hall and Stockton's original school, and are located at King and Mitchell street, Crown and Mitchell street, Queen and Mitchell street and Maitland and Mitchell street.
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Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said more than $1 million was invested into protecting the sandstone kerb and gutter.
"It's been many decades since there has been this type of investment into this local centre," she said.
"The main street here had huge potential for investment.
"What we have seen here is a genuine process with the community to consult for quite some time around how they envisaged this once in a generation upgrade."
Stockton Community Group's Alison Rigby said the street "needed a refresh".
"We're looking forward to the plants growing and giving us shade," she said.
"It is an elderly community. Having that shoulder for people to get buses... and more seating is good.
"I really like that it's 40 kilometres an hour now. It's a really good mix of pedestrians and cars, bicycles as well."
Ms Rigby said the works brought a bit of disruption with road closures and a temporary introduction of traffic lights into the suburb, but it was worth it.
"To make an omelette, you got to crack the eggs," she said. "I think we were all frustrated because it felt like forever, but now we can see the result."
However not everyone is happy. The number of parking spaces was reduced from 59 to 54 to make space for a new pedestrian crossing and kerb extensions.
Darren Riddell, who works at a Mitchell Street business, said the loss of parking had affected customers.
"Nothing could have been done worse," he said. "They moved the pedestrian crossing and put in speed humps which were two good things, but they took parking spots.
"They narrowed the road. They could have put in 45 degree angle parking to create more spaces."
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