Residents differ in opinions over council's city status proposal

The idea was proposed by Councillor Peter Kearney at the council's monthly meeting on Tuesday, but was voted down.

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Legana resident Jim Collier said the fact West Tamar council was even considering raising the area to city status was "ludicrous".

"What a waste of time and effort," he said.

"With the majority of West Tamar ratepayers actually living in Riverside in reality most of those ratepayers reside closer to the City of Launceston than anywhere else."

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Mr Collier believed if West Tamar Council wanted to do something to improve the wellbeing of its ratepayers it would be better off by reopening "meaningful" talks of amalgamation with George Town, Launceston, and other bordering Councils, a move which would, according to a recent KPMG study, save Ratepayers $1.3 million annually.

That opinion was directly contrasted with that of Riverside resident and esteemed author Nigel Burch, who thought the move was a "great idea" for the area.

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"I didn't think there was any great expense involved, it would just give the area a greater status so that we could talk to the government as a city, which I believe has more gravity rather than something that they would otherwise just assume is a small rural shire," he said.

"Burnie's a city, and its population is less than ours."

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Burnie City Council mayor Steve Kons was not in power when the area became a city in 1988, but since being re-elected to council in 2018, he said he had observed the effects of the move.

"One of the detriments is that you have to provide a greater level of services, meaning there's also a greater expectation from the community and people that go and visit the city," he said.

"When you start building this infrastructure, there is depreciation involved, which impacts resources, so while it's a nice tick to have, it comes with a lot of expense."

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