MAYORAL MOMENT - OCTOBER

 I've been very fortunate to have the support of the Greater Oyster Bay News at Swansea since I was elected as Mayor and it has proven to be very beneficial in communicating what happens at a Council meeting.  Council does post it on our website after GOBC News has published it.  It occurred to me that a different audience might be reached through this forum so I have decided to post future Mayoral Moments at the same time as Council posts it.

Here is October's offering - 

Welcome to the Mayoral Moment following the Ordinary Meeting of Council on the 24^th October.  As always, I am grateful to the GOBC News for their support in publishing this column.

This month’s agenda dealt with several administrative matters as well as a request for community small grant support for the Triabunna Christmas Crew.  Council was pleased to support this initiative by a very enthusiastic group of people to make Triabunna ‘Christmasy’ again and reinstate the float parade that used to be a fixture of the silly season a few years ago.

One of the administrative matters was acknowledging the recent declaration of office by Richard Parker who won the recount.  It was my pleasure to welcome Clr Parker back to the Council Chamber after an absence of some years.

There will be advertisements placed shortly for land that Council can see no future use for.  Any funds generated will be far better utilised in much needed infrastructure than retaining some under-utilised land.  There is a process that allows members of the public to lodge representations if you feel that this is not the right outcome.

As always, acting as a planning authority was a difficult and at times emotive part of the Council meeting.   I think it is fair to say that all four development applications had a degree of community concern, some more than others. All four applications were passed albeit reluctantly in some cases by the planning authority. 

The proposed Bicheno Ambulance Station has been the subject of much discussion in the community and a request was made by Council planning staff to the developer to defer the matter to enable more robust community consultation to be undertaken.  That request was denied and due to legislated planning timeframes, Council had little choice but to debate the matter at this meeting.   I understand that the new Minister for Health may have stepped in and asked his department to defer processing the development application to enable further discussion with interested stakeholders. As the planning authority, we have obligations to meet under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme and staff put a compelling argument to approve it under the provisions of the Scheme.  It does not mean that Council endorsed the project on the proposed site.

There has been some conjecture about the large Eucalyptus Globulus tree at the back of Morris’ store and how the new development may impact on it.  Some concern has been raised that Council did not take the tree into consideration when officers assessed the application.  Investigations have been undertaken and the tree is on the crown reserve and therefore not part of this development application as the development is all within the developer’s own boundary.   If the developer wanted to take any action in relation to the tree, then they would require a number of permissions.  My own investigation with staff indicates it would be unlikely for Crown or Council to give any permission, unless it was declared a dangerous tree by a suitably qualified person.

On other matters, we are hopeful that the Local Government Board Reform paper will be released at the end of October.    Will we be ‘boundary adjusted’?  Who knows!  If you have an interest in this matter, keep an eye out for the paper.   Personally, I am not convinced that GSBC won’t be targeted for boundary adjustment.

Of greater concern is the Draft Fire and Emergency Services Bill currently before State Parliament.

In summary the key points of the Bill reform are;

Tasmania Fire Service TFS and State Emergency Service SES will combine under a            single entity Tasmania Fire and Emergency Service TFES.

 The newly formed TFES will be headed by a Commissioner reporting directly to the                  Minister for Police and Emergency Services.

The authorities legislated for the current State Fire Commission will be transferred to the      new Commissioner.

 A State Fire and Emergency Service Committee will be ministerially appointed.

Council shares the concern of the broader local government sector that this will mean the current residential fire levy will likely double under either option.  The impact on businesses is worse.  The short timeframe for submissions on the Bill was a major concern for the sector.  We received some welcome news that the submission deadline has been extended to 1^st December.  Please remember that this fire levy is only collected by Council for the State Government through the rates process.  If you are of a mind to review the Bill, please consider putting in a submission.  You will find it at What is changing - Tasmania Fire Service

Now the good news, it is only about 60 days to Christmas!  I think I have blinked and missed a large portion of this year.  Time goes by so fast these days.

Until next time, stay safe

Cheryl