Cable car trust issue

Adrian Bold says ‘confidential information’ not safe with council

CABLE car proponent Adrian Bold has told the state’s Upper House that the Hobart City Council cannot be trusted with confidential information, as MLCs prepare to debate legislation that would facilitate the project.

Mr Bold made the comments in briefings to the Legislative Council yesterday on the Government’s Bill to compulsorily acquire land at the pinnacle of the mountain.

Mount Wellington Cableway Company chair Jude Franks told MLCs her company felt the project had been frustrated by the council at all points, and the Government’s legislation was the only “tenable pathway” to bring the project to fruition.

“Without this, fundamentally the project will be very doubtful if it can go ahead,” she said.

Representatives of the State Growth Department agreed the project had been frustrated.

However, Hobart City Council general manager Nick Heath said he strongly rejected any submissions that the council had been obstructionist.

The MWCC said it was unable to lodge a development application for the cable car because the Hobart City Council, which owns land at the pinnacle, had not provided landowner consent and the only way forward was with Government legislation to compulsorily acquire the land.

The project would then go through the normal planning process.

However, Mr Heath said the council had been unable to provide consent when MWCC requested it in 2014 because the application included a “fundamental flaw”.

The flaw meant a boundary adjustment was required under the Wellington Park Management Plan, which MWCC subsequently had changed.

Mr Heath said MWCC had not made any application since.

Mr Heath said he would require information on the econ- omic viability of the project before providing landowner consent. He said that was a reasonable requirement as the council was the custodian of the significant public land in question.

Mr Bold said MWCC had provided the council with confidential information in the past, which was subsequently released to aldermen and later to the media.

He said the company was reticent to provide similar information, including financial information, to the council again.

“It’s very clear to us we simply can’t trust the council with confidential information,” Mr Bold said.

The council has disputed that the information released was confidential.

The council said Mr Bold provided a confidential backgrounding document in April 2014, but Mr Bold then discussed the document on radio, legally waiving the requirement that the document remain confidential.

The general manager then provided the document to aldermen.