The Northern Midlands council voted unanimously for the meeting, likely to be held in May, at an ordinary council meeting last week, which also gauged support for changes to the Waste Management Levy and a number of street names.

HeartFM was established as a community radio station for the Northern Midlands region in 2002, originally broadcasting from a studio in Poatina. In 2009, a studio was also established on Wellington Street at Longford.

However the station's committee decided to cease operation in July 2012, due to a lack of revenue and consistent sponsorship representative.

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The station received a financial commitment of $11,000 from the council in 2015 to meet the cost of establishing a studio in the back room of the Longford Memorial Hall, though the length of the time since the decision means the funding is not allocated in the current budget - the works would also need to be requoted.

A proposed Waste Management Levy increase to better fund the Northern Regional Waste Management Group was also approved by the council, expected to drive sustainability and resource recovery.

As a voluntary regional partnership between seven councils, the proposed increase from $5 to $7.50 over the 2019-2022 period must be agreed to by all.

Esplanades in Campbell Town and Ross were up for discussion at the meeting too, after the Nomenclature Board wrote to councils across the state seeking to have the 57 duplications renamed to include their locality to ease location, particularly by emergency services.

After discussion, the council rejected both the board and council officer's own recommendation to change the street names, retaining the Esplanade in both towns.

Mayor Mary Knowles and Councillor Michael Polley opposed the motion.

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