Suburbs forgotten in Launceston City Deal

Today’s signing of the Launceston City Deal ignores the needs of significant parts of the Launceston Urban Area because they are in different Local Government areas.

The major suburbs of Prospect Vale, Riverside and adjacent areas of Hadspen and Legana, accepted as being part of Greater Launceston, are administered by the Meander Valley and West Tamar municipalities, however these councils have had little if any consultation about the City Deal.

About 10,000 residents of Meander Valley Council live in Prospect Vale and Hadspen, a similar number live in West Tamar Council’s Riverside and Legana but these residents will receive no benefit from the CBD-centric investments of this City Deal, despite its brief mention of wider flow-on benefits to the region.

Councillor Connor said, “Major parts of Greater Launceston have been ignored in this City Deal and will receive few if any benefits”. He continued, “I’ve put in calls to the relevant State and Federal ministers seeking more input on the City Deal process but they were not returned. I’ve also raised the question of City Deals at previous Meander Valley Council meetings but there’s been no action forthcoming.”

Meander Valley Council is pushing ahead with a Community Heart concept at Prospect Vale and making residential land available at Hadspen under its own steam. Cr Connor said “The Hadspen Urban Growth Area is one of the largest tracts of land available for residential development in Greater Launceston but Meander Valley Council has had to commit substantial funds of its own to ensure rezoning and infrastructure development proceeds.” Ultimately over 800 new housing blocks will be available in Hadspen.

Councillor Connor said, “Amalgamation of Meander Valley and West Tamar’s urban areas into a Greater Launceston Council or Tamar Valley Council would ensure that the needs of all residents are considered in future negotiations such as the City Deal, not just those of the City of Launceston”.

“Sadly, the Tasmanian Government’s process for council amalgamation and shared services is severely lagging in the North of the state, councils have seldom come together to seriously discuss amalgamation (except for George Town out of necessity) and the shared service benchmarking study is still in limbo after 2 years” said Cr Connor.

Cr Connor noted “Funding to consolidate Greater Launceston’s 7 sewage treatment plants would be welcome if it is part of this City Deal but that’s something the Commonwealth sorely needs to contribute to anyway due to the substantial cost of the project.”

“Greater Launceston needs a single local government authority to effectively manage the entire urban area instead of the current piecemeal approach which has past is used-by date.” Cr Connor concluded.
Andrew Connor, Councillor Meander Valley Council, www.connor4mvc.org