At its meeting on Tuesday the council agreed to contact federal Health Minister Sussan Ley, urging her to restore the funding model to enable the programs to continue into the future.

Through mayor Craig Perkins, the council will also contact Tasmania’s federal parliamentarians with a request for them to lobby Mrs Ley to fund the health programs.

Speaking for the motion was Dr Dinah FitzGerald, the chair of Westbury Health and the Westbury health Advisory Committee.

“The removal of these three positions and all the services is going to be devastating for our community but also Tasmania,” she said.

Dr FitzGerald said Australia had gone backwards on the Youth Development Index, a measure of 16 key indicators for youth aged 15 to 29-years-old.

“If we lose a youth worker, a mental health worker and our social worker, we will see an even greater increase in this index,” she said.

“I would ask you to support wholeheartedly this motion and to lobby your members and anybody you can to keep these services, even if only for 6 months, to allow these people to redirect our youth into appropriate other services.”

Councillor Bob Richardson put forward the motion, and said more than half of the community living between Westbury and Hadspen had utilised one of the many programs the health centre offered.

“It worries me that the federal government is going to remove the funding from the 31st of December,” he said.

“I believe it is a callous act ... and a misunderstanding of what rural communities are about.”

The council discussed whether it had capacity to support the health centre financially until funding could be secured, but unanimously agreed to lobby federal politicians as a matter of urgency.