Hobart Supporting Neighbourhood Street Parties

Transcript of media conference with Acting Mayor of Hobart, Helen Burnet, and Lenah Valley resident Tanya Brooks-Cooper at Ancanthe Park, Lenah Valley, 21 July 2023.

Helen Burnet

Hobart residents are being invited to team up with their neighbours to host a local get together and the best part is that all the logistics will be taken care of by the City of Hobart.

The My Street events will be held in suburban streets or parks and feature roving entertainment, food vans, and more.

Each My Street event will be as unique as the community hosting it. It could involve a talent show, a clothing swap, a food-making contest, a scavenger hunt, a circus workshop, or even a bush dance.

It might be as small as just a few neighbours up to what we had at Lenah Valley last year, which was around 250 people. The council helps with in kind support, we’ve got fabulous officers helping to set up and help coordinate the My Street neighbourhood activation. It’s a special party for your special part of the world.

Journalist – Tom (WIN)

And you had a few of these last year, what was sort of the feedback you got from them?

Helen Burnet

It was fabulous, there was so much fun and, and seeing people that you didn’t necessarily know, meeting new neighbours, and seeing what can be done. So it was a lot of fun behind us at Ancanthe Park in Lenah Valley. And I’m sure that whatever the reason, there are good reasons to have a My Street activation.

Journalist – Tom (WIN)

How can people get involved?

Helen Burnet

You need 3 people to put in an application. You can do that through the website. And just you can always ask officers questions as well. So you can ring and and get information from Council officers and support for whatever you want to do to activate your neighbourhood So it might be a street party, it might be in a park. But whatever it is, it can really activate and bring neighbours together in your part of Hobart

Tasmanian Times

I just had a question about the TasCAT decision, they rejected the appeal against Council’s approval of the Forestry building makeover by UTAS, do you have any comment?

Helen Burnet

Yes, the TasCAT appeal was rejected. And the Melville Street building is now, development has started, particularly with the storm water upgrade, which is occurring. So this decision by Council was upheld by TasCAT. I think that that’s something that that really says a lot about the planning system in in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Times

The mayors has issued a statement yesterday, the Greater Hobart Mayors, the tone of that was a little bit miffed that there’d been no consultation prior to that planning announcement being made earlier this week. What what do you think is going to happen next?

Helen Burnet

Well, it’ll be interesting to see what’s in the paper tomorrow, because we had the planning, or we had the the amalgamation announcement on one day, and then the planning Development Assessment Panels announcement without any discussion with local government. I was at that meeting with the Greater Hobart Mayors. And it felt that there there was concern that planning, which is undertaken by planning authorities, which are councils in the main, was really not considered, or there was no discussion with with councils. So I think there’s still a long way to go before this decision is landed by the government. But I think it also pays for the government to be open and transparent when they’re making significant decisions like this.

Tasmanian Times

To your knowledge is there anything like this dual system, the Development Assessment Panel plus council – developers can go either way – does that exist anywhere else in Australia that you know of?

Helen Burnet

That opt-in system that was was talked about, I don’t think would be functioning or functionable anywhere else in Australia. It is quite a strange hybrid model if you like. So I think there’s still quite a long way to go in regards to really landing this decision. And of course, more discussion would be really welcomed by by councils.

Journalist – Tom (WIN)

Can you tell us about how it went for you last year?

Tanya Brooks-Cooper

The event was amazing. The park you see behind us was full of people and they just kept coming. The buses kept dropping them off people, kept walking in the event was amazing last year.

Journalist – Tom (WIN)

What did it mean to the community?

Tanya Brooks-Cooper

Well, I think it was the highlight of the community calendar. From all accounts the park was full. The people were here, people met people they hadn’t seen for years, and had chats, met neighbours old or new it was fantastic. It was just a really cool opportunity to come together in the dark of winter, and do some family stuff and connecting stuff.

Tasmanian Times

Did people come from other areas, or was it just neighbouring streets?

Tanya Brooks-Cooper

They did. We know people who came from as far as Glenorchy. Some people came up from down south to meet friends here. And the tables up behind and picnic mats were out and everybody was sitting around just having a great time. So yeah, we know they came from all over to enjoy it. And I heard Levi saying earlier that some some people actually follow the events around and went to lots of them across Hobart to really just enjoy the deep winter.

Tasmanian Times

Were there any complaints about noise or traffic or any sort of negative fallout?

Tanya Brooks-Cooper

Not that I heard of. That was one of the things, we did letterbox drops around all of the neighbourhood And we posted on all the Lenah Valley groups. So everybody knew it was happening and they were signs up and we were wrapped up pretty early. But some of the fun stuff that brought the people, we organised for the bands to play. And some of those bands they were in grade five and six and was the first time they played together as a group in public. So all of their friends came and all of their families came and the photographer at the event took a whole lot of photos so that they could have on their album cover if they ever went big. So we did whole lots of fun stuff, there was circus skills, there was fire throwing and fire pits. So it was really it was something for everyone. It was a really cool event.