Cable car hits new snag
THE process for assessing the Mt Wellington cable car is on hold yet again as the Hobart City Council requests more information from the proponent.
The Mount Wellington Cable Car Company lodged documents with the council on January 6 to address a series of questions arising from its original development application, which was made last June.
Company chairman Chris Oldfield had said at the time the company had agreed to several extensions to the coming consultation processes and was hopeful of a result by the end of this year.
But the council’s general manager Nick Heath released a statement yesterday that said the company had failed to provide all extra information required by the council to assess the application.
“A panel of external assessment experts has determined that the additional information submitted by the proponent on 6 January does not fully satisfy the original request for further information made in July 2019,” Mr Heath said.
“As such, we have gone back to the proponent stating what further information they still need to lodge to the City of Hobart, as the planning authority, to enable us to fully assess the planning application.”
Mr Heath said a lot of additional information had been submitted and much of it was sufficient.
But, he said further information was still needed on Aboriginal heritage, traffic impacts, bushfire planning, biodiversity impacts, sewage management and disposal, and geotechnical assessments.
Mr Oldfield said the company found it “a bit strange” the council had issued an extensive media release on the issue without their knowledge.
“We are a little bit surprised that as part of the statutory planning process, the council has seen fit to put out a media release subsequent to inviting us to a meeting next Monday morning,” he told the Mercury.
“We will raise that with them on Monday and once we get a chance to read the information from council and have a discussion, we’ll be happy to make more comment then.”
Mr Heath said the council wanted to “conduct this process to the highest standards possible.
“We’re very keen to ensure the public are kept informed as to how this application is proceeding,” he said.
The assessment process will be on hold until the further information is supplied. The proponents have two years from the original request to do so.
Residents Opposed to the Cable Car called for the extra information to be publicly released and the entire application to be withdrawn.