Dorset mayor Greg Howard said he agreed with Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten that any reform talks needed to look at the entire Northern region.

“For at least 12 months we have been promoting a model for the North that included a Tamar Valley Council but we also think that there shoudl be a city based Launceston City Council, so if the merger was to go ahead between Wast Tamar and George Town, Riverside and Trevallyn should come into the city and so should Prospect,” Cr Howard said.

“That would then open up the possibility of a merger between Northern Midlands and Meander Valley. 

“In the same vein we would expect that Launceston would get rid of their country areas, the area east of Launceston would come into Dorset and the area south of Lauceston would go into the Northern Midlands Meander Valley area.”

Cr Howard said he would also like to see Flinders amalgamate with Dorset and Break O’Day extended south to include Bicheno.

Meander Valley mayor Craig Perkins said his council was committed to the regional benchmarking study and looking for opportunities for strategic resource sharing with its northern counterparts.

“The level of regional cooperation amongst councils is as good as I have ever seen it, and if we continue to work together we will achieve great things for our region, the northern LED lights initiative being one current example,” he said.

Northern Midlands mayor David Downie agreed and said his council was eager to see where savings could be achieved.

“I think it’s up to those two councils to purse the talks that they are having, our council is happy going through the modelling being done by KPMG and that report will divulge if there are savings and then we can take it back to our communities to see what they think,” he said.

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