Mr Engwicht will meet with councillors and senior staff during his four-day visit to Taree.

Council's general manager Gerard Jose described Mr Engwicht's visit as "an opportunity" and said that members of the community who met Mr Engwicht last year had embraced his ideas on how we can encourage people to visit and stay longer in our town centre and foreshore.

"David's return to the Manning Valley is an opportunity to move some of these ideas into action," Mr Jose said.

"He will brief councillors to explore how council can assist in making these ideas come to fruition. Key staff are also meeting with David to develop what he refers to as permission plans plans that discuss what you can do in town centres, rather than what you can't do.

"We also like David's approach of undertaking trials to see the effectiveness of new ideas and make changes as required. I think David gets all of us thinking about how we can do things differently and he provides some great examples of his work from Australia and New Zealand."

Mr Jose added that "place management is such an important approach in communities and involving the imagination of the community is key in developing solutions for public space".

"We will continue to develop strong partnerships to progress any ideas generated by the community at this workshop. This has already started with Tidy Up Taree and David's return is a great initiative."

Place maker, David Engwicht was brought to Taree last year by Greater Taree City Council to discuss changes to bring life to Taree's CBD. His return next week is seen as an opportunity to move some of his ideas into action, according to city council general manager Gerard Jose .