“For me going away and coming back, the biggest difference I saw from three or four years ago until now, is the confidence in terms of Launceston and within the council itself,” he said. 

In 2018, the council achieved a surplus of $3.2 million.

The Examiner takes a look back over the City of Launceston council’s 2018. 

This year was the first full year of the City Deal. 

A number of projects are now underway as a result of the deal, with the council keeping its promises.

“From council’s point of view, all of our commitments that we have made under that deal are being delivered. So things like the City Heart Project and Civic Square Development,” he said. 

“All of the partners are working really well together and I think that’s been a real success of the year.”

Tamar River Funding 

As part of the deal, $94 million was promised for the Tamar River. 

The funds came after a Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce report made 12 project recommendations to clean up the river. 

The recommendations included $10 million worth of “catchment actions” across dairy, grazing and urban areas, and $84.6 million worth of “priority projects” within the combined system.

“The funding announcement for the Tamar River was a significant boom and I guess a vindication of the importance of the City Deal. That funding wouldn’t have been provided in the way it was without the city deal,” Mr Stretton said. 

Works will start next year. The project is expected to take five years. 

Brisbane Street Mall and Civic Square revamp

Two central precincts, the Brisbane Street Mall and Civic Square, have been upgraded as part of the plan. 

The first part of the Civic Square development opened in May, with the Brisbane Mall revamp completed about November.

“Obviously Civic Square is a really good space and we’ll work to activate that now more in the new year,” Mr Stretton said. 

“For the mall, we’re looking at some event-based, things like pop-ups, food offerings and basically when we’re having events that are in the area getting them to come and do some precursors to their events.”

Smart cities 

The Smart Cities project continued in 2018, with the council shifting its focus to 3D modelling. 

The council was also successful in securing the next stage of funding for the projects. 

“That will start to see a focus on improving the way that people access and use the city. So, looking at traffic lights, and improving the way they function and the way they assist people to move through the city,” Mr Stretton said. 

The traffic signals will respond to what’s actually happening with the traffic environment. He said the council and State Growth made “significant investment” to upgrade the lights. 

Digitalising the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s collection, and improving digital literacy in schools is also happening through the program. 

The first public electric car charger was also installed in Launceston under the deal. 

More than 66,000 people went through the Launceston Visitor Information Centre in the past year.

“That to me, is helped by the events that we have and the four Hawthorn [Football Club] games and the pre-season one,” he said. 

The council gave more than $530,000 funding to events in the North during the last 12 months which secure a number of activities come to the Launceston. 

“The Big Bash League game was probably the most exiting. It was the first national cricket game at UTAS Stadium in its history,” Mr Stretton said.

“There were more than 16,000 people under lights. That to me was such a success and formed the two games that we’ve got this season, so I see that going from strength to strength.”

The AFL Inclusion Carnival was held in the North and $130,000 funding for the Special Olympics was promised. 

“I think our investment in events is paying dividends in working with Tourism Northern Tasmania. We’re seeing some really new events being attracted into the area,” he said. 

Mona Foma 

The first Northern Mona Foma in January brought $46 million to the economy.

Thousands of people attended the event. Because of the event’s success organisers will permanently move the festival North from January 2019. 

“Mona Foma put us on the map and it was a great success,” Ms Stretton said. 

Rally Car championships 

The council provided $50,000 to Confederation of Australian Motor Sport. The event was held during the state’s Winter months and tourist off-season. 

In 2019, the event is set to come back to the north bigger and better because the council was able to assist. 

Tourism awards

The North was also able to secure itself as the host for the Australian Tourism Awards. 

Despite the announcement being made in 2017, the council this year gave $50,000 funding to the awards to install a marquee over the Gorge pool. 

The marquee will host the 800 people from across Australia expected to attend the awards. 

More than 650 development applications were lodged with the City of Launceston council during 2018. 

“They’re worth about $210 million. So that is about 10 per cent increase in DAs from last year, but about 60 per cent increase in value,” Mr Stretton said. 

C H Smith 

The C H Smith site is continuing to be redeveloped. 

“C H Smith is coming along really well. We’ve now got our fleet transferring from Cimitiere Street into C H Smith and that’s working really well,” Mr Stretton said. 

The site is expected to be completed in 2019. 

As a result of the council being able to move its fleet, the developers of the Hotel Verge were able to get underway and start to convert the former car park into a hotel. 

Play area upgrades

The council renamed the area formerly known as Northbank to Riverbend Park, ahead of one of the state’s biggest play spaces opening. 

A pedestrian bridge was also opened across the river, connecting the area to Seaport. 

“The amount of people you see walking over the pedestrian bridge at Rivebend Park now is great,” Mr Stretton said.

“That was a really successful project and a we’ll see that completed early in the new year and that’s going to change that whole area of Launceston in terms of activating that.”

Mr Stretton said the park will be an attractor and the state’s premier park. 

The council also started work on upgrade the Gorge playground. 

“If you’ve been up there lately, it’s significantly different to what it was,” Mr Stretton said. 

The park is expected to be complete by March.

UTAS relocation

More information about the University of Tasmania Relocation to Inveresk is expected in the new year. 

“There is a lot of interest in what’s happening in that space and there has been a  lot of work behind the scenes with the university and other stakeholders,” he said. 

“We have a working group now established between the council and the university basically bringing together and nailing down a lot of issues that are still needing to be worked through.” 

Mr Stretton said the works had progressed well, but admitted people did not understand the work done behind the scenes. 

“I think it’s been more complicated than I thought it would be. Even from our end doing a subdivision at Inveresk when you have all that 150 year old infrastructure, it’s hard to separate it all out,” he said. 

“We’re pretty pleased with where it’s all at. I know people are eager to see it progress, but my message is that the planning scheme amendment will be submitted early in the new year and we will start to see some regular updates and on the ground works.” 

In October, a state-wide local government election was held. City of Launceston got five new Councillors. 

Long standing alderman Robin McKendrick was a late exclusion. He joined Emma Williams, Ted Sands and Simon Wood as former aldermen who did not retain their position.

Darren Alexander resigned from his position as an alderman before the election, to run for a spot on the City of Hobart council. 

Former Greens MP Andrea Dawkins, who lost her seat at the state election in March also joined the City of Launceston council. She narrowly missed out on the deputy mayor position, in a tough battle with Danny Gibson.

She is joined by new faces Alan Harris, Nick Daking, Tim Walker, and Paul Spencer.

Albert van Zetten retained his seat as mayor.

Mr Stretton said despite losing some familiar faces, change was good. 

“It’s a shame that we see people who put their hand up for public office and miss out. Certainly someone like Robin McKendrick who has had 37 years in the office and to miss out. But, I think they have other ways to contribute than just as elected members now,” he said. 

“The one thing the election indicated through the re-election of the mayor and the bulk of the councillors is that the community is pretty happy with the direction of the council.”

Since the election, the council has passed a motion removing the aldermen title. They are now referred to as councillors.  

The council also brought discussions about the city’s building heights limits and the Invermay traffic issues to the table. 

However, with both these issues being discussed close to the election the council deferred them until the new year. 

Preservation Ale 

A beer was recreated using 200-year-old yeast during a partnership between QVMAG and James Squires. 

A limited edition of the preservation ale was launched and tapped at Saint Johns, selling out almost instantly. 

“That was a quirky, but really successful venture that the council worked on,” Mr Stretton said. 

RSPCA 

The council worked with the RSPCA to find a “sustainable” solution. 

In June it was revealed the Launceston centre was running at a loss of $25,000 per month.  Just Cats have now taken over the cat shelter and Dogs’ Home Tasmania are looking after the dogs. RSPCA is focusing on its inspectorate services. 

“To me that’s been a real successful outcome where we now have a stable model for Launceston,” he said. 

FOGO

The introduction of the Food Organics Garden Organics collection service is now seeing some positive outcomes. 

More than 7000 people have no registered for the service. 

“We’re starting to get usable product out the other end of that now,” Mr Stretton said. “There is a saving to ratepayers in the sense that we’re not having to purchase as much mulch because that’s being generated by the service.”