Health
Planners in revolt on RHH site
Michael Stedman Mercury
THE State Government’s push to build a new hospital on the Hobart waterfront suffered another setback yesterday with the apparent loss of a key ally. The Tasmanian Division of the Planning Institute of Australia has been a long-time supporter of the new Royal Hobart Hospital being built at the dockside railyards. But in its submission to the New Royal Project Team, the institute slammed the Government’s planning process as paying “no more than lip service” to the opportunities and challenges of the railyards site. Its support for the site was contingent on retaining a rail corridor into the city and protecting the integrity of the working port. “Based on the current site planning for the area, PIA is seriously concerned that these major requirements have been poorly acknowledged,” the submission said. It said positioning patient rooms closest to the noise of the port and in the area most prone to sea level rises and storm surge was an example of the “fragility of the planning assessment”. Read more here