Scenic Destruction on Trevallyn

So bits of Trevallyn are over the hill and out of sight of Town Hall and out of mind. It seems they are now in the 'Scenic Destruction Zone' under Launceston's new planning scheme.  But you would think that if the General Manager lives on Trevallyn (so he says)he would have taken some sort of interest but it does not seem he is paying attention. 

The infill going on, and approved by Launceston Council, seems to have little to do with planning for sustainable living. MacMansions at the expense of trees!?

The Greater Launceston Planning Process

Australian universities on borrowed time
Posted Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:43pm AEDT

An independent review of Australia's university sector has found that no Australian University will survive to 2025 on its current business model. Business advisory group Ernst and Young spent six months interviewing vice-chancellors, the private sector and policy makers in the higher education sector and declared that the sector is on 'borrowed time' ...  Click here to go to the ABC site http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-24/australian-universities-on-borrowed-time/4331648

In the Greater Launceston Planning process  – http://yourvoiceyourlaunceston.com.au/greater-launceston-plan#widget_name_6 – currently in train there is the assumption that in 2030 the University of Tasmania in its current form will be in Launceston doing much the same as it is now ... and attracting overseas students(?) etc. Interestingly, looking back in a shorter timeframe the university was not operating in Launceston in its current model. Why might we, for planning purposes, assume with any kind of safety, that the status quo or anything like it be evident in any substantial way in 2030?

Currently UTAS is shedding staff positions (approaching 200 currently) and its being speculated that the ultimate number of positions to be lost will be in the order of 500. That does not look a lot like the premise that the Greater Launceston Plan is apparently being founded upon.

If the current tertiary education model is operating on “borrowed time” there are many other corporate, institutional and enterprise models currently in operation that are likewise approaching their use-by dates. That goes for Councils as we now know them as well. Also it is increasingly evident that newspapers are undergoing identity changes that will, as likely as not, change what they will look like by 2020 and goodness knows what’s in store for 2030. And it goes on, and on, and on for better and for worse.

So much for picking winners a long way out with redundant information on your desktop.

Hapless Academic

LGH Parking

Council times in on LGH parking – http://www.examiner.com.au/story/411524/council-times-in-on-lgh-parking/?cs=385
By PATRICK BILLINGS  Oct. 22, 2012, 7:17 a.m. ·        LAUNCESTON aldermen will decide today whether to adopt timed parking restrictions on streets surrounding the Launceston General Hospital.
It comes in response to a lack of parking for residents in South Launceston, which the Launceston City Council has attributed to the hospital and nearby allied health centres.

The council has proposed two or three-hour parking restrictions in parts of French, Galvin, Pedder, Gee, Garfield, Mulgrave, Charles Street South, West, Lord and Hampden streets.

The existing parking rules in Frankland Street, which runs parallel to the hospital, will not be changed.
Before implementing the plan the council will write to every resident in the proposed ``parking precinct'' seeking their views on week-day parking restrictions.

At least half the residents will have to back the parking measures for the council to implement them.
The council identified about 120 out of 420 properties in the area that would probably qualify for a parking permit if the scheme went ahead.
A council audit in August found the hospital's new $15 million car park had only slightly improved parking availability in the surrounding area.

On the day of the audit the car park's public parking areas were half occupied while the staff parking floors were ``well over'' 75 per cent full. 

A report to aldermen said it would cost about $20,000 to install the necessary parking signs and there was a risk the problem may just shift to other streets.


44 comments – click here to read them all – http://www.examiner.com.au/story/411524/council-times-in-on-lgh-parking/?cs=385

Year after Year LCC allowed developments at and around the hospital without carparking being provided. Now they want to further annoy the residents of South Launceston with a residential parking permit scheme and add to the visual pollution with $20,000 worth of signage. This is a waste of ratepayers money. The hospital carpark should be free of charge and only then will it be fully used and the surrounding streets be left in peace.
Frank 2 comments – the hospital car park isnt owned by lcc. obviously the curretnt parking aarrangeements arent working, so i dont see how the proposed solution is a waste of ratepayers money. if it frees up parking spaces regularly thru the day, thats a good thing
Ex-ratepayer 1 comment – Frank its clear you are the mouthpiece for LCC Not really becoming with your position
Rob 4 comments – What I don't understand is how CarePark can be allowed to hold the overwhelming monopoly they have over parking spaces in this city. I wonder if anyone has ever referred CarePark to the ACCC and if not what their thoughts would be on their hold of this city?
Seriously? 1 comment – I think you'll find that the new car park at the hospital was either tendered or offered to multiple agencies including the LCC and they were not interested in running it. I don't like the current organization but if you want the service , pay the price!
Pb 1 comment – Rob its called corporate greed, and as far as the ACCC is concerned they are a toothless tiger, they cant even control collusion with the petrol prices, and Aurora energy also has a monopoly even though there is cheaper electricity available from Victoria that the government cretins use, but its not available to just anyone, how convenient LOL

ADD YOUR COMMENTS BELOW

Site Performance

click above to enlarge

A Critique: Launceston Interim Planning Scheme

A critique from a senior planner that has been provided to the Ratepayers Association

CLICK TO ACCES THE COUNCIL WEBSITE

......... the Launceston Interim Planning Scheme belongs to the Launceston City Council and it is their responsibility to make it accessible to the public. In response to a complaint from an ex-Alderman and my own exploration of the Council’s website, the following points should be communicated to the Council (and the Commission, since the Commission may be publicly seen as sharing responsibility):

1.     The link to the Interim Scheme introduction is not prominent or easy to find; it is buried at the bottom of the page after going through the Home>Services>Development>Planning links;

2.     Once there,  we find another 8 links for the scheme text (totalling some 10MB) and a choice of links for the maps – two via a ‘dropbox’ website for the zones or overlays, two for other viewing platforms These are also problematic.

a.    The zone maps from https://www.dropbox.com/s/dgwk63lws1iymy8/Zoning_A1L_linked.pdf  imply that you have to set up a Dropbox account. (Some people might be wary of that, even though it looks to be free for the first 500MB. The ex-Alderman didn’t even want to contemplate downloading large files.)

b.   You don’t actually have to set up a Dropbox account, you can hit the ‘Download’ button/Direct download but the zone file (pdf) is nearly 18 MB and contains 44 pages which are organised sequentially by map number. There is a point and click selection of detailed maps from the first (index) page, but no  ‘search for this address’ capacity. 

c.    Once in a detailed map there is no scroll wheel zoom or pan function. The clunky alternative is to use the + and – buttons to magnify the image and then the side bar and bottom bar slides. Generally you need to magnify to 200% to see smaller residential titles (such as strata) clearly.  The bottom slide bar takes you smoothly across the page, but the side slide bar quickly takes you to the preceding or subsequent maps (in numerical order, not north or south) and you can easily lose your place. The only way I found to overcome that was to use the top and bottom arrows on the side bar which enables slightly finer tuning of vertical position. In other words the map displays are not ‘seamless’ as you might expect.

d.   Displaying at 50% shows the whole map sheet but not all the legend or the index – you have to go to 43.2% to get those. At that magnification many of the street names are barely legible, depending on background colour

e.    Zooming to 100% displays about one quarter of the full sheet, but you cannot simultaneously see the legend or index, unless you are looking at a small part of the south west corner. Street names and lot boundaries are now generally clear BUT THERE ARE NO STREET NUMBERS or Property ID numbers !!

3.     The overlay maps at https://www.dropbox.com/s/22q4ra8jkdwztcv/Overlays_A1L_linked.pdf are on an even larger file (54.8MB) but with the same organisational and navigational problems as the zoning file, noted above.

4.     The smartphone app at http://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/lcc/index.php?c=574 gives quite a good seamless city map (‘Launceston City Council Map Data) with zoom and pan functions and the ability to add a number of layers, including zones and overlays. This also provides street numbers at high magnification (Hooray) and maintains the legend in a side box at all magnifications. This is probably the most accessible digital version of the planning scheme, although the search function doesn’t seem to work. (Entering my home address gave the LCC home page and response ‘Your search for (my address) has returned 1 result’  but did not take me to a map showing where it was! Searching for many street names gave a null result.

5.      The GIS webpage at http://launceston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=b7904081b140436fbe1a55c362a91599 <http://launceston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=b7904081b140436fbe1a55c362a91599> is laughably inaccurate and scours the world for places with Launceston place names. Examples- Normanstone Road started a search for Normanstone Park, Washington DC; Denison Road returned ‘Denison Rock, shoals, Canada’, Wellington returned ‘Wellington New Zealand’, ‘Road’ started to search for ‘Raz, Zanjan, Iran !!! (No maps were displayed for any of these searches, but hours of fun or frustration can be had looking for places in Launceston.)

6.     I finally found a map of  Launceston Tasmania but it displayed the zone layer as a collage of coloured triangles that looked like a Picasso painting! See below.

click on the image to enlarge

All this leads to the simple question – ‘How is Jane Public going to identify her property and find out what  zoning and overlay restrictions may apply to her address?’ 
From my recent experience, it’s not going to be easy!

Tasmanian Professional Planner 

Launceston's Foray Into Indonesia

If the Mayor and GM picked up any intelligence in Indonesia it may have been worth the ratepayers' investment. Perhaps regular jaunts to Indonesia and like destinations to acquire "intelligence" should be embarked upon.

Launceston needs more intelligent decision making and ratepayers should be grateful to get it no matter where ever we can find it, so as it has been said before this is where we will find the bonus and get a bang out of our buck.

Stanley Vale

For The Examiner on this story go to http://www.examiner.com.au/story/414559/trios-trip-to-indonesia-questioned/?cs=95

George Town Council approves controversial amendment

FROM THE EXAMINER

By James Brady Oct. 17, 2012, 12:43 p.m.

click here to go to source and read all the comments

MEMBERS of the George Town Council public gallery today left after police were called to the council meeting at which a decision was made to approve an amendment to the council's planning scheme. 

Deputy mayor Bridget Archer and councillor Tim Cory boycotted the meeting after the decision was made. 

The planning amendment will allow a state government funded $6 million child and family centre and link hub to be developed on the town's historic Regent Square. 

More than 40 people were at the meeting, many of whom were in opposition to the agenda item related to the controversial development. 

Councillor Tim Cory and deputy major Bridget Archer boycotted the meeting after the decision was passed to amend the scheme. 

The amendment will first need to be approved by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. 

Councillors Tim Cory and Stephen Geale and deputy mayor Bridget Archer voted against the amendment, which was lost 3-6. 

Regent Square is believed to be discussed at a Tasmanian Heritage Council meeting today regarding its entry to the Tasmanian Heritage Register.

Full story in The Examiner 

OCTOBER 18

 click here to go to source and read all the comments

MERCURY TODAY: Almost 25% near poverty

How many of these were created by excessive government charges and taxes and rates boosted by waste and losses?

Bewildered


Almost 25% near poverty
  BRUCE MOUNSTER   |   October 15, 2012 12.01am

MORE than 70,000 Tasmanians, or almost 14 per cent of the state's
population, are officially classed as living in poverty.

Poverty Report 2012, released yesterday by the Australian Council of
Social Service at the start of National Anti-Poverty Week, also found
Tasmanians are among those at greatest risk of falling into poverty.

Tasmanian Council of Social Service chief executive Tony Reidy said
the latest statistics taken in 2009-10 showed a widening gap between
Tasmania, with a 13.7 per cent poverty rate, and the rest of
Australia, with an average of 12.8 per cent.

Mr Reidy said just as alarming was the 24 per cent of Tasmanians
living below, or only slightly above, the poverty line, set at 50 per
cent of the median income, or $358 a week for single adults, or $752
for a couple with two children.

He said many Tasmanians could have been tipped over the edge by
soaring food, water, energy and transport costs.

Mr Reidy said the Tasmanian situation was exacerbated by a rapidly
ageing population and a high 7 per cent unemployment rate, causing 34
per cent of Tasmanians to depend on Commonwealth benefits compared
with 23 per cent nationally.

"Another major factor is the number of sole parent families. Nearly 25
per cent of Tasmanians under 15 live in a single-parent home. In many
of those households, the parent may have a reasonable income but their
capacity to afford essential items is affected by factors like the
high cost of renting a home ... on one income," he said.

Mr Reidy said it was unacceptable for Tasmanians who found themselves
unemployed through no fault of their own, to be abandoned.

He said welfare organisations were calling on the Federal Government
to raise the Newstart allowance from a sub-poverty $492 a fortnight.

Mr Reidy said TasCOSS applauded the State Government's allocation of
$3 million for emergency bill relief in an effort to keep crisis-hit
families on their feet but more was needed.

The Dilemma Ahead

Council Executives might well benefit from reading what's actually happening for taxpayers and the pressures on their budgets:

1. If Councils, LCC in particular, constantly raises their rates despite everything, their way of balancing the books, what's going to happen when the ratepayers just cannot pay?
2. Do Councils resume ratepayers’ houses and sell them for a song to their mates?
3. Does the Council resume the properties and rent the back to occupants of their choice?
4. Do we reinstate Poor Houses for fallen property owners who cannot pay their taxes and rates?
5. Will citizens refuse to pay rates that include hidden levies?
6. Will ratepayers go on granting permission to grow the pie for the benefit of Council Executives who oversight diminishing services?
7. Will ratepayers continue to endorse salaries to Council Executives that bear little if any relevance to productivity?
8. Can ratepayers expect any empathy at all on the part of Council Executives for their predicament as residents and service takers?
9. What kind of rating system are Council Executives going to advocate now in a falling property market?
10. Can property owners look forward to falling rates in line falling property values?
11. How are Council Executives going to assess ratepayers’ capacity to pay?
12. Will Council Executives continue to receive increasing performance bonuses out of step with diminishing property values and falling Council revenues?
13. When will see anything that resembles a serious critique of the services civic managers deal uyp to ratepayers?
    

And there are more questions still! All this is lot different to before and the rhetoric Council Executives are inclined to deliver.

Bewildered

Tasmania


FROM TODAY’S MERCURY
Housing debt traps buyers
ANNE MATHER   | October 14, 2012 12.01am

INTEREST-rate cuts have dealt an unexpected blow to thousands of Tasmanian homeowners burdened with crippling mortgages.

As struggling borrowers shop around for lower interest rates, thousands are finding their mortgage is higher than the value of their property.

Although the Reserve Bank cut official interest rates 25 basis points this month, the major banks have not passed on the cut in full.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young says 66 per cent of people think there are better deals available than their present loans.

However, experts warn that shopping around for cheaper loans is an impossible dream for many highly mortgaged battlers.

Valuers have reported that some Tasmanian borrowers now have negative equity in their homes because of the stalled housing market.

Property valuer Matthew Singleton said some Tasmanian homes were being revalued at less than the price paid a few years ago.

Mr Singleton, the state manager for Propell National Valuers, believes people should have their homes revalued when they're looking at refinancing. He said: "If people borrowed at the height of the boom, they could now have negative equity in their property."

The Tasmanian Council of Social Service said mortgage stress was on the rise and the phenomenon was a "priority matter" for agencies.

TasCOSS chief executive Tony Reidy said mortgage pressure had left "many, many hundreds of very stressed families" around the state.

He said Tasmania was already struggling under the impact of job losses, especially since the collapse of timber giant Gunns and had the nation's highest unemployment figure, at 6.8 per cent.

Families were also reeling from rising power prices and it was the poorest who were the least able to invest in power-saving efficiencies, he said. Mr Reidy said many of these struggling families often had the largest mortgages.

They now faced the added financial pain of being unable to shop around for a better bank deal.

"Because of the different movements in the way the banks are passing on or not passing on the rate cuts, people are looking around at banks down the road," he said.

"But when they have their homes revalued, they are finding that the market price is not the value the home was mortgaged at."

Mr Reidy said this meant borrowers were "absolutely stuck" with their lenders as they did not want to reveal their mortgages were higher than the property's value.

NMD Data, a national database that lists mortgagee foreclosures, has listed 216 Tasmanian residential properties as mortgagee sales in the past financial year.

Managing director John Kovacs said that figure was only the tip of the iceberg.

The company only lists properties that are explicitly indicated as "mortgagee sales" but Mr Kovacs said banks preferred not to advertise them, to avoid fire sales.

He said first home-buyers were suffering most. Many entered the market at the height of the boom, mainly the result of the first-home buyers' grant. But TasCOSS said people struggling with payments should always speak to the bank.

Mr Reidy said banks were keen to make new arrangements, much preferring to see people stay in their homes rather than having to sell.