Current at: 24 July 2008
HIA Planning Sessions Held in Launceston and Ulverstone
Following on from our previous branch evenings, which have proven to be informative and successful evenings, HIA North and North West Branches have hosted over 45 members in the North on Wednesday 6 July and 40 members in the
North West
on Wednesday July 23 to planning information meetings.
The information sessions focused on providing an overview on:
-
Just exactly what is the planning system in
Tasmania
including the review to the Tasmanian planning system;
-
What does a reviewed West Tamar as well as the Central Coast Planning schemes mean for builders, designers and subtrades; and
-
What will the regional planning initiative and a regional planning scheme mean for Tasmanian builders.
To open the evenings, Craig Doherty provided an overview on Tasmanian planning to reinforce the fundamental understanding of planning which, by its nature, is complex and difficult to understand and navigate.
Michael Purves provided an overview of the reviewed West Tamar Planning Scheme and
Michael Stretton
provided an overview of the Central Coast Planning scheme. There were questions asked and concerns raised about each of these two schemes which were noted by HIA for further follow up with each respective Council.
Ian Abernethy made a presentation on the work of Northern Tasmania Development on behalf of the Northern Regional Planning Initiative and Charles Arnold provided the equivalent overview on regional planning with the Cradle Coast Authority in the
North West
.
The key points of the night taken on board by attendees were that the Tasmanian Planning System is complex and that reviewed schemes can also present more headaches than the previous scheme.
Both Councils representing the respective schemes acknowledged a need to work through some major problems with each scheme and HIA will be presenting submissions to lobby for less planning bureaucracy and amendments where required.
Also there was a positive view formed by attendees that regional planning has the potential to simplify working between each council or scheme in the future and members noted that they were eager for this initiative to be pushed by HIA through to introduction over the next 12-18 months.
HIA encourages members to keep an eye on the calendar to attend future Branch meetings, site visits and trade nights to be regularly conducted in the future.