Fish farm positives
GIVEN Mr Playsted posed the question “Surely even Mayor Kent must have had enough now?”, I would like to correct the letter (Letters, April 13). Ratepayers will not have a $5 million bill to supply water. The Prosser Plains Raw Water Scheme is user pays. Council has a secured loan from Treasury and a grant of $2.3 million from the Federal Government. Tassal employs 18 locals for Okehampton farm operations. This will increase not decrease as the operations are rolled out. Feed automation has not decreased employees at Triabunna. The number will increase.
Okehampton is one of Tassal’s best performing sites for water temperature. The temperature did not cause large scale mortalities. There has been a single mortality event caused by human error which was disclosed by Tassal at the time.
Once Tassal received permission from TasWater to take water from the town supply due to a breakdown of the reverse osmosis plant. This did not cause current restrictions. Mr Playsted is standing as an independent candidate for Prosser for the Legislative Council. I hope in the future he takes the opportunity to check facts. plans involve, what the goals are and who is involved in planning (Letters, April 17). Regardless of who owns the bitumen, changes need to take place in consultation with residents and businesses, as well as the council. Imagine if the State Government removes places for pedestrians to cross or so much parking that businesses move out. Imagine if they do all this without encouraging more people to use public transport, then in a few months the roads are congested again with calls for more dramatic changes. The State Government will not have all the skills and insights. It’s important they produce their plans as soon as possible and work with a range of people to ensure a good outcome.
LOW SCORE; Reece Conca of the Tigers and Stefan Martin of the Lions.
be convinced that likely foreign ownership and construction are not going to detract from the best interests of Tasmania. Let’s not forget, the cable-car company is a business, designed to make as much money for its owners as it can. The marketing strategy promising osmosis of money from it to us needs to be questioned. Do the promised pay-offs to us, the people who live here, seem worth the visual damage to our mountain which we love and admire every day?