Legacy bridge name stalls

THE proposed name for a bridge spanning the Tasman Highway — the result of a popular vote — has been put on hold after opponents made last-ditch complaints to the Nomenclature Board.

Last month a Hobart City Council-conducted poll voted for “Legacy Link” as the name of the Federal Governmentfunded $8 million pedestrian bridge, which will connect the Cenotaph with Soldiers Memorial Ave on the Domain.

Legacy Link wasn’t on the original shortlist for names but, after being added to it, the name won double the votes of the next most-popular proposal — “Bridge of Remembrance”.

Following the result, Hobart City Council submitted the name to the State Government’s Nomenclature Board.

But a Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment spokesman said a final decision on the name had been put on hold pending an investigation after last-ditch submissions against Legacy Link.

“These included some people raising concerns over the proposed name,” he said.

“The board deferred making a decision to enable further information to be obtained.”

The push for the bridge to be named after the Legacy movement and charity — established in Hobart in 1923 by Major-General Sir John Gelli- brand and which has spread around the globe — put a number of other veterans service groups off-side.

Both the Friends of Soldiers Memorial Avenue and RSL Tasmania told the Mercury that they made submissions to the board, arguing that the bridge should not be called Legacy Link.

President of Friends of Soldiers Memorial Avenue John Wadsley — who previously said the debate about the name had become politically moti- vated — said rules for naming places in Tasmania did not allow any to include business or organisation names.

“From a look of the rules, it actually does not comply,” he said. “A lot … believe the name should be more inclusive.”

RSL state president Terry Roe said he wrote to the board asking it reject the name of Legacy Link. “We are just disappointed in the Hobart City Council that they allowed the name in,” he said.

Past president of Hobart Legacy Paul Crew wrote a letter to the editor in October about why the bridge should be named after Legacy, and it prompted a rush of letters to the Mercury in support. He said he was mystified by the opposition to the name.

“I just can’t understand why they would oppose it,” he said.

“We are all in the same boat of looking after families.

“Legacy is a movement, not an organisation, and it was founded in Hobart. I just don’t understand the opposition.”