Star St: Appeal!

Margot Giblin

Alderman Helen Burnet supports the application for boarding house development at Star St. — Here we are again, dragging this out because we now have to wait for the Full Bench to meet, which isn’t often. It’s been over twelve months since this first came to Council and if approval had been initially granted then this winter would have seen a roof over the heads of those in need.

Star St.
Front door to no-one for a decade and not likely to be for some time as the Hobart City Council has decided to appeal to the Full Bench of the Supreme Court to overturn the recent Supreme Court decision by Justice Peter Underwood to overturn Council’s refusal for the development of a boarding house for low income residents.

The site, which has its own driveway off Fitzroy Place, formerly housed Derwent Court Nursing Home and a forlorn sign still bids people welcome.

Passing by on Friday morning was Dick who was vocal in his support for Anglicare’s proposal to offer accommodation there to 27 men.
Dick has had need in the past for such a place though doesn’t anticipate ever having to look for one again.
‘It’s so important — and the same thing is happening here as in Adelaide, where I was for twenty years. Boarding houses and caravan parks all going — and it just pushes people out, away from the things they need in the city.
What’s the problem? If the people running it don’t own the building why not give it a trial run? Put that in your article.’

Done.

Gary Bennett is manager of Bethlehem House in Warwick St which offers boarding and short term crisis accommodation to 31 men.
His view of the Council decision is that Bethlehem House will experience increased pressure given that there is a real and growing need for this type of accommodation in Hobart. The demand has grown for a variety of reasons including the choice of some hotels to move towards back-packer accommodation and the closure of others, such as the Royal Exchange, which catered for low income residents in the past.
Bennett regards it as the role of all tiers of government, including local, to help provide low cost accommodation and certainly not to obstruct it.
One person moved out of Bethlehem House on Friday morning.
Bennett was sure that place would be filled before nightfall.

Alderman Helen Burnet supports the application for boarding house development at Star St.
— Here we are again, dragging this out because we now have to wait for the Full Bench to meet, which isn’t often.
It’s been over twelve months since this first came to Council and if approval had been initially granted then this winter would have seen a roof over the heads of those in need.

Tasmanian Times was unable to ascertain from those aldermen contacted what Council considers its two grounds for challenging the latest decision to be. It is likely, however, that Council will say that there is a legal basis for doing so — that there were flaws in the process — rather than that Council has a problem with the application itself. It was for such reasons that Council said it first challenged the RPDC decision to allow the development of the site as a boarding house.

Earlier: Star St: Appeal dismissed

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