The Taree New Year's Eve Fireworks display is set to be a great community event after a successful bid by the Combined Service Clubs of Taree to take on the running of the event.
At the recent MidCoast Council meeting on Wednesday, 20 March Councillors accepted a motion that recommended passing the responsibility of hosting the event back to the community.
The Combined Service Clubs of Taree including Rotary, Lions and Quota will take control of Manning's yearly event.
The combined group already have extensive experience running similar events including Music and Market days, Carols by Candlelight, Tastefest and Australia Day celebrations.
They plan to build onto the event to incorporate music and child friendly entertainment, food and non-alcoholic drinks stalls, community market stalls, and of course the important fireworks display itself.
MidCoast Council Mayor Claire Pontin said it was a good result for everyone and Council were looking at doing the same with the Forster-Tuncurry celebration.
"Holding events like these are not within Council's core responsibilities and we have listened to the community who have said that's what we should focus on delivering," she explained.
"So, the decision was made to call for expressions of interest from community groups to take over the running of the events in both Taree and Forster.
"We're glad to announce we received very strong applications for the Taree celebration and that will go back to the community from this coming New Year's.
"Unfortunately, we didn't receive the same response for Forster-Tuncurry so Council will continue to host that event for another year with the hope we will receive a suitable application in the meantime."
Mayor Pontin said she hoped the Forster-Tuncurry community would rally behind the idea.
