Crisis aid motion ‘watered down’
A GLENORCHY alderman says her motion to investigate the possibility of using councilowned halls and facilities as crisis accommodation has been watered down by council officers after the discussion was put off last month.
The motion by Kelly Sims was deferred at last month’s meeting because it was submitted to council six days before the meeting instead of seven.
Part of the motion was for council officers to come back to council after two months with a report on the viability of using the council-owned resources. In response, council officers said there were complex considerations in the possibility of providing crisis accommodation.
“A limited number of buildings were identified as possibilities as council rarely leaves a facility vacant without finding a tenant,” a council officer said.
The officer indicated the use of halls would not be suitable. “Even our lower-utilisation halls would require significant upgrades to ablution facilities and would be difficult to heat efficiently,” the council officer said.
“The majority of halls are highly utilised with regular hire groups in place.”
The officer said the possibility of using change rooms would also require negotiations as they are all tenanted.
They also said a planning permit would be needed because there were no exemptions to allow a premises to be used as emergency accommodation.
The council officer said providing oversight and site management of such a facility was not something the council was capable of providing and said a partnership with a provider would be needed.
“They’re basically giving us the reasons why they can’t do it, it appears to be excuses,” Ms Sims said.
“We have access to the spaces, the planning scheme and the processes able to make that happen.”
Ms Sims said her motion had been watered down.
“The motion was really about reassessing opportunities and we’ve missed the chance to do that genuinely and meaningfully,” she said.
“It’s exactly what the community is sick of.”
Her motion will be put to council at Monday’s meeting.