LETTER TO THE EDITOR: UTAS INVERSK MOVE

Geoff McLean’s letter (Jan 9) points to a fundamental failings of local government in Tasmania ... the lack of enterprise.

It’s true that there will be no ground floor ‘teaching facilities’ as a part of the proposal in accord with Council’s planning requirements.

Therefore, it seems, there might be parking and retail spaces there which should ‘turn a dollar’ for UTAS if they are to get the site FREE and unencumbered as it seems is the plan.

Yet again, the losers here will be the ratepayers. They will lose both income from the sale and the ongoing income opportunities. That’s the income needed to offset the consequent development costs.

If only the Council and UTAS together had the wit and enterprise to form a consortium for the mutual benefit of ratepayers and the university, plus the students of course, the objections to the “Council Gift” might well have melted away.

Similarly, if Council were to require UTAS to be 21st C savvy and environmentally responsible (sustainable?) this development might well be ‘World’s Best Practice’ and planned to:
• Generate substantial amounts of its own energy;
• Be built using 21st C sustainable technologies; and
• Managing all its water on site ... similar to London’s development requirements.

The ball has been in their hands and clearly both parties have dropped it!

Ray Norman
Trevallyn

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Letters for Saturday, January 09, 2016 Jan. 9, 2016

UTAS
IF Malcolm Scott (The Examiner, January  6) was trying to make a pointed objection to the proposed university campus at Inveresk then his point was sorely lacking in knowledge.

There will be no teaching spaces on the ground floor level as that is a Launceston City Council stipulation.

The ground floor will all be parking and possibly some retail spaces.

It is notable that those who are objecting to the proposed campus, on the grounds it is on a ‘flood plain’, were silent when the Queen Victoria Museum developed its now magnificent site, which is on the ground floor.

There was no objections when the University’s schools of architecture, fine arts and performing arts moved to Inveresk; all with ground floor space.

And certainly no-one objected to the development of York Park into arguably the best boutique multi-purpose sports stadium in Australia; and it is not on stilts.

It would seem the objections are based on a dislike of the university and nothing more as I’m yet to see one that has any logical substance to it.

—  GEOFF MCLEAN, Launceston.

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