West Tamar councillor proposes municipality becomes a city

Councillor Peter Kearney moved the motion, which was voted down by five of the nine councillors present.

This is not the first time Cr Kearney has raised this idea, having brought it before the council as far back as the late 90s, and as recently as 2018.

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He cited several reasons why he believed the move would be beneficial to the municipality, including creating a greater status to help advocate for state and federal government investment.

"This shouldn't be for councillors to worry about, it should be put before the residents for a vote," he said.

"If they vote no, then fair enough, at least then we can know for sure it's not what the people want, but they could also vote yes."

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According to the Local Government Act, the criteria a municipality must meet to become a city are to have a population of at least 20,000 persons, for 60 per cent of residents to live in an urban area, and for an elector poll to be conducted on behalf of the council to indicate the majority of ratepayers favor the recommendation.

West Tamar council meet the first two sets of criteria, however, for the third to be met, the motion needed to be passed at the meeting.

Cr Kearney said conducting an elector poll could reach a cost in excess of $100,000, however, if the vote was held in conjunction with a local government election, he believed it would cost about one-tenth of that.

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One of the five councillors that voted against the motion was Lynden Ferguson.

Cr Ferguson said his main concern was the potential negative reaction from the community. "I don't think residents of our municipality would be expecting a proposal of this nature, particularly at a time when rate rises would likely be their main concern due to our budget being released ," he said. Cr Ferguson also believed there was not enough analysis regarding the positives and negatives becoming a city would create for the council, despite various examples being provided by Mr Kearney, including two Tasmanian municipalities turned cities - the City of Glenorchy and the City of Clarence.

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