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July 29, 2024 15 mins

Here is The Mayor on Air for Friday 26th July for you to download, listen back or listen if you didn't catch it on air last week or if you want to recommend it to a friend. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, good morning. It's time to say good morning to
our Mayor Shane Pitt as we begin this week's edition
of The Mayor on Air. Good morning, Good morning's go.
How are you pretty good for a Friday. I just
had a little bit of a minor cold. It's not
what you call a man flu, just a little bit,
but it's it's not as bad as it could be.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
So it's been going around recently. Yeah, yeah, even out
at work. We've had a few, yes, a few people
off in this last week. So you know, it is
going then that time of the year, I guess, but
hopefully people can get over that pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah. I've noticed a few people wearing masks the last
couple of weeks in town, So that's a good time.
That's a good sign, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
There it is, and I guess it's this time of
the year we see the flu season. A lot of
people are probably wearing masks now that even though it's
not COVID, that sata don't spread the floor as well,
which is great to see.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Exactly. Ye, no, well done everybody on that. All right, Well,
once again we've got no listener questions for this week,
so let's go on to other council information and you
want to explain a little bit more in detail about
our nature strip policy.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah mate, Yeah, so that the nature strip policy last
year was adopted in November last year and we've asked
for feedback back in twenty twenty two with regard to
that and earlier in twenty twenty three. So this is
a new policy came into effect on the first of
July this year and it's key changes that brings the

(01:28):
West Coast in line with other councils right around Australia.
So you know, we were one of the only councils
that still looked after nature strips, which is surprising. But
it gives residents the primary responsibility for the maintenance of
the nature strips and it also allows them to be
able to beautify and maintain.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Their areas in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
So it's an opportunity for rate payers and also residents
there that we'll be able to do something with that
nature strip that may sometimes is only grass and sometimes
they do use utilize it for parking as well, so
there's an opportunity for the residents to use that strip

(02:13):
of land for their own use as well. So we've
you may, I'm not sure whether residents know, but down
in Hobart they've got a policy in place and how
similar to theirs. It's got some energies about you know,
if people want to grow plants on the nature Strip,
they can as long as they get it in contact

(02:34):
with counsel and get approval because there is some plants
that will.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Obstruct obstruct vision two drivers in the area.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
But you know, we're quite open to listening and residents
if they've got any questions on this. There is a
list of questions that staff are put together frequently asked
questions about that, which we may answer some of them
questions residents may have over the policy.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
But yeah, no, it is.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's a great thing and I think it's something which
we've looked at for some time now. You know, people
do some people do respect that the nature strip and
look after them really well, and then others cannot do that.
So some people aren't able to do that, So that's
they can still make contact with counsel and council will
but make arrangements to be able to assist in that

(03:24):
some way. But you know, we have got some elderly
people in our community and also some people that you
know cannot maintain the nature strips were open to help
them as well. So it's not just we're not going
to stop maintaining nature strips straight across the board. It's
an opportunity for people to look after it. And there's
a lot of people in our community that already do

(03:46):
look after the nature strips and look after them well.
So you know, it's they've got pride in the front
of their houses and we want to make sure that
they have got the opportunity to use that bit of
land to their own, you know, their own needs as well.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
So which is great, yep, absolutely great. All right, Well
there's some comprehensive information there about nature strips, so the
policy there, so hopefully you can take that and yeah,
just digest it so you know exactly what's happening. All right.
Let's move on now with the West Coast Community Volunteer Strategy.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, so if anyone would like to participate in driving
the volunteer strategy, please contact our Growth and Change team
on six four seven one four seven hundred or Growth
and Change at West Coast dot TAZ dot gov dot AU,
who will assist in setting up the first meeting, So
we want to try and get a group together that
could be able to assist with this. You know, our

(04:43):
volunteers do a tremendous job around our communities and if
it wasn't for them, a lot of things wouldn't happen
in our community as well. So we want to make
sure that these this strategy gets a bit of movement
so that we can assist these.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Volunteer groups as well. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, So if anyone out there is interested in assisting
with starting up this group, please contact our Growth and
Change team.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Great, excellent, all right. So also the West Coast Community
Plan Review is out. Yeah, this is exciting, Scurvo. It's
that time.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
I guess that time of ten years has gone past
very quickly since twenty fifteen when we set up the
twenty twenty five plan and you know, next year twenty
five is here and we need to make sure we've
got a plan for the following ten years. So yeah,
it's very exciting. So we've engaged r A Planning and
Environment to work with the community to undertake this, and

(05:41):
so they'll be setting out some engagement sessions shortly and
there'll be some community workshops. So a Counsel had a
presentation from them on Tuesday at our workshop and it
was great, great presentation and the ladies there have certainly
got a lot to offer us moving this next ten
year plan forward. You know, it's great to hear from

(06:03):
then that, you know, some of the things that they
were saying about the West Coast and what we've done
and our plan, our existing plan, how good it is
and it stands out as one of the best in
Tasmania against all other councils.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
So that's great to hear.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
And that comes from now the community involvement last time
it was huge. You know, we had seventy five percent
of our residents attended most of the forums in our communities,
which is unheard of right around Australia. So you know,
it's great to see that our community is right behind
this and they've got the opportunity again to jump on

(06:39):
board and yeah, drive the next ten year plan for council.
It gives an opportunity for us to see what the
community want and you know out of that came the branding,
you know, the West Coast branding, which the ladies there
said that they've never seen anything like that before.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
It's really great.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's one of the leaders and they quite always are
promoting our branding to other councils. This is what you
need to do, guys, and which is great. You know,
that's something that's come out of the West Coast that
you know, we're leaders in that area, so well dound
everyone involved in that, and you know, they surprised the
amount the amount of local businesses that have taken on

(07:24):
the branding as well and making that part of their branding, which.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Is great to see.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
And that was what we're always about when we started
that branding program that we wanted to make sure the
whole community were involved in that.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
So it's great.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
So here's an opportunity for people now to get get
to them sessions. Once they come out the dates and days,
so it's not too far away they'll be that they'll
be starting to promote them them workshops and there will
be also some other pop up sessions also around the communities.

(07:59):
And also the schools be involved as well, so which
is what we wanted to see. You know, it was
last time we'd done this in twenty fifteen. The schools
were involved then with a huge gathering of all the
schools across the West Coast and we've got a lot
of good information from our children and that's they're the
future of our locals. We need to make sure that
they've got a voice in here as well.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
This is Mere on air for this Friday. We're in
the studio with Mayor Shane Pitt right now as we continue,
and Strong Waterfront is up for tender.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, so the West Coast Council invites tenders to redevelop
the Strong Waterfront. So, you know, listeners probably have heard
that we did get grant funding some time ago now
and then it was I guess we need a little
bit more on the federal government with their funding and
also state government. So we've got in the vicinity of

(08:50):
three million dollars there to spend on the waterfront. So
we've had engaged GHD to do the engineering around that,
with consultation with people down there at Straw and some
of the business owners down at Strawn just to make
sure that we get it right. We had a community
consultation down there and Strawn as well about that and

(09:11):
got some good feedback from that as well, which we
sent back to the engineers to make sure they took
all that into account as well. So the proposed works
project works include a rejuvenation of the Strong waterfront to
create a modern safe port precinct and a vibrant public
space for locals, tourists and also you know encompasses. So

(09:35):
submissions must be received by Friday, the ninth of August,
so we haven't got far from them surveys. So yeah,
if anyone needs interested, please contact council and they can
point in the right direction to if anyone likes to
put a tender in place for that redevelopment. And we've
seen the concept designs and the Strong community down there,

(10:00):
you know that is pretty looks pretty spectacular and will
certainly change that area for the better. You know, we've
see a lot of these other communities around around Australia
that have got similar sort of waterfront areas that have
done tremendous jobs to them and we want to make
Straw make sure Strawn is one of them so we

(10:22):
can attract the tourists down there.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yep, absolutely well done, fantastic. So you heard it this
morning here on seven Excess. We need a tender for
that Straw waterfront. It's very important. Okay, like again, all right,
let's move on again. And a reminder of the food
license renewal.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, so if you're a food business and have not
renewed your food license for twenty four to twenty five,
your license has expired. So you need to get in
contact with counsel asap. Otherwise you made cop of an
infringement LEAs don't want that, and you don't want that,
that's right, mate. We want to make sure all our
food businesses have got their licenses, and especially coming into

(11:05):
the tourist season. You know, we're hoping we have another
bump a year and we want to make sure that
all our businesses are ready to go.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, and I mean this is the thing. It is
a security thing for the business. I mean, you know
people might say, oh, no, I don't know why I
have to go through this nonsense if they think it's nonsense,
but it is important because there could be an incident
that occurs and you know, they leave themselves open, don't
they They don't get licensed exactly right.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
You know, in this legislation, it is not something that
counsels just put in place. It is legislated by the
state government this requirement, so you know, people need to
follow those requirements. It's a way of them to make
sure that people are compliant in the air of food
safety exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
All right, Now, an update on your financial and in
kind policy.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, so, at our last council meeting on Tuesday, that
policy has been review and updated. So the updated policy
will be available via councilor's website and all the Growth
and Change team will be holding information centers to go
through the changes for community groups and to answer any questions.

(12:20):
So these session dates will be will be advised in
due course, but if you have any questions in the meantime,
please contact the team and they'll run through it. So, yeah,
it is a major change here that worse counselors believe
that we needed to make given that you know, the
way that things are moving at the moment and costs

(12:43):
are living, et cetera. Things. You know, even counsel has
obligations to try and cut costs, and you know, we've
seen that this is probably one one of the cost
cutting exercises that counselors can make. Yeah. So, and we'll
be making sure that we certainly do look at what
the applications do come forward. But of course you know

(13:06):
we're still there will be still funding there it's not
as if we're cutting it out completely. There is changes there,
but yeah, so we'll be making sure that all these
community groups and you are able to find out what
the what the changes are through these sessions. So yeah,
just I guess once the dates are announced, we'll make

(13:28):
sure that we get it out there again so that
these community groups do understand that there has been changes.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Absolutely all right. We finish off now with another positions vacant.
This is the manager of Organizational Performance.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, so that closes today at five pm. Any further
information can be found on the website if people want
to apply in this last a little while. We haven't
got long to go.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
We've got long to go.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
All forward an application for employment with the cover leader
addressing the selection criteria and your resume to careers at
West Coast dot TAZ, dot gov dot AU. So yeah, no,
it is an opportunity for a person out there that
might have them managerial skills, that believe that they can

(14:20):
offer something the council there that we'd like to hear
from them.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yep. Absolutely, all right, Well that's it fantastic some things
there to digest this morning. So thank you for letting
us know about those, and don't forget if you have
a question for the mayor. We always welcome questions, no
matter if they're hard or easy to answer. The mayor
is always happy to attempt to answer it, or you

(14:46):
know you'll at least take it on notice, so please
send any questions to our website sevenexcess dot com dot
Are you Bear Shame? Pitt? Thanks for your time. Yeah, thanks,
you're welcome. All right. That's mere on air for this
week on seven Excess.
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