Huon Valley Residents & Ratepayers Association in Huonville | Community organisation

Huon Valley Residents & Ratepayers Association

Locality: Huonville

Phone: +61 409 950 885

Address: Main Road 7109 Huonville, TAS, Australia

Website: http://www.huonvalley.org.au/

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25.01.2022 Huon Valley councillor Mike Wilson found guilty of code of conduct complaint A Tasmanian councillor has been found guilty of a code of conduct breach over a string of Facebook posts. The decision has prompted a passionate response from him.

23.01.2022 Click on the image

19.01.2022 Tourism Industry Prior to the Covid-19 emergency HVRRA had been in discussion with HVC about its tourism promotion strategies as the losses incurred by the Visitor Information Centres have been significant and the value of them to the industry is highly debatable. We are far from convinced that the current arrangements have been providing the community with value for money and so far HVC has not responded to our suggestions. We have made a number of suggestions including the ...establishment a Tourism Advisory Committee consisting of a councillor, an appropriate HVC staff member with expertise in the area of tourism promotion (is there one?) and members of the community with tourism businesses and/or relevant experience in tourism promotion. The current situation makes it imperative that strategies be developed that will help this important industry get back in business and thrive as soon as circumstances permit. The establishment of such a committee would cost HVC (ratepayers) next to nothing. Please let us know if you have any thoughts about this. See more

19.01.2022 The new anti-protest laws are the thin end of the wedge. Here's a petition against them. http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au//H/CurrentEPetition.aspx

19.01.2022 https://www.huonvalley.tas.gov.au/geeveston-town-hall-publ/ Following the decision to close the Visitor Information Centre within the Geeveston Town Hall, the Huon Valley Council is undertaking community engagement on the future use of the Geeveston Town Hall. The engagement aims to: Check in with the community regarding the 2015 vision for the Geeveston Town Hall and find out if the community still agrees with this vision;... Facilitate discussions with the community about the management structure of the Geeveston Town Hall; Re-imagine the vacant spaces within the Geeveston Town Hall; and Facilitate discussions with the community about how the Geeveston Town Hall can become not only a tourist destination but also a vibrant community hub. A public exhibition is now open for feedback. The exhibition discusses the results of the community survey and workshops, and identifies potential actions for the future use of the Geeveston Town Hall, including its management model, key uses, and the possibility of installing a lift. Have Your Say now on the future of the Geeveston Town Hall Visit the Have Your Say Page Read the discussion paper Please complete the survey (closes Sunday 27 September 2020) Public exhibition and survey You can view the exhibition/discussion paper and complete the survey at the Geeveston Town Hall, or collect the materials in hard copy from the Council’s Customer Service Centre at 40 Main Street, Huonville. If you have any questions please contact Council’s Community Engagement Team on (03) 6264 0300 or [email protected]

15.01.2022 HVRRA AGM 2019 7pm, Tuesday 24th September Huon Valley Council Chambers, Huonville All committee positions will be vacated and nomination forms are available here: https://huonvalleydotorgdotau.wordpress.com/... After the AGM formalities we have a General Meeting and invite you to share your thoughts about how we can best serve the Huon Valley community in the year to come.

12.01.2022 Review of the Local Government Act information https://huonvalleydotorgdotau.wordpress.com/news-and-updat/

09.01.2022 The submissions to the AFAC 2019 Tasmanian Bushfire Review are now available. There is a lot to be learned from them. http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId=colPublications

09.01.2022 We had hoped to hold a series of Q&A sessions around the Huon electorate in the lead up to the Legislative Council election on the 1st August but the Covid situation has made this impossible. Instead we are hosting an online Q&A with candidates. We will record it and make it available for watching on YouTube. In some ways this will be more convenient for the many people who don’t go out much but would still like to actually hear from the candidates before voting. The sessions... we held before the HVC elections in 2018 were well attended and very successful and by using this technology voters can watch it when it suits them best. All six candidates have been invited to participate and we hope that they will all take advantage of this non-partisan opportunity to present themselves to the public. We will give each candidate exactly the same opportunity to present themselves and answer questions that have been submitted by HVRRA members. The order of speaking for each question will be randomised using an online list generator and the speaking time will be strictly controlled to ensure that no individual candidate has an advantage. Depending on how many candidates participate the session should run for between 60 and 90 minutes. It has been a difficult election campaign for the candidates with lock-down conditions followed by strict Covid prevention protocols preventing the usual door knocking and face to face opportunities. Written candidate statements are useful but they’re carefully crafted and revised. It’s quite different from hearing and seeing a candidate answer live questions. The recording will be unedited so what you see will be exactly how it happened. Just like live TV. The YouTube link for the Q&A will be available here and on our Facebook page at Huon Valley Residents and Ratepayers as soon as possible after the Q&A which will probably be held next Wednesday (22nd July). We are still waiting for a response from some candidates.

08.01.2022 JEFFERYS TRACK If you are interested in knowing more there are information/consultation meetings in Huonville on September 3 with the team undertaking the feasibility study. For more information click on this link: https://www.huonvalley.tas.gov.au/jefferys-track-to-undergo

07.01.2022 Q&A with candidates for the Legislative Council seat of HUON now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcD_ZbJ1xs 10 questions - 50 responses The Legislative Council can make or break legislation. It can amend poorly drafted legislation. Your vote is important.... We've produced this video to help you decide. See more

06.01.2022 COVID 19 and HVC Services With so many businesses impacted and with so many people losing their jobs there is pressure on HVC to provide rate relief or, at the very least, not increase rates this year. This means that council will have to find savings and Emilio Reale (HVC General Manager) has contacted all councillors asking them to consider this. What would be really helpful is if Councillors could think at the more strategic level of what services could the community acce...pt, reduce, do without or what alternative models that may be available to deliver the same or similar services. An example is could we reduce maintenance standards, eg less road grading, putting up with a potholes in roads for longer, not mowing the parks as often or reduce the number of sports centres we run. This is the sort of direction we need, so we know where to reduce resources. Blanket reductions wont work as we just cant function efficiently with reduced resources in some areas and still be expected to function as normal or deliver the same service level. There will still need to be community engagement on some of these decisions. HVC has already shutdown a number of services and facilities including all the halls, recreation facilities and the Visitor Information Centres and many staff are working from home. We have not heard of any staff having been stood down despite the fact that the work they were doing no longer exists and may not exist for many months to come. Perhaps they have been redeployed and are actively engaged in providing emergency services but there has been no information provided about this so far other than the GM saying (in relation to recreation facilities) that our staff will continue to work on site undertaking some maintenance and program work during this period . No one wants to see retrenchments but many in the community have lost their jobs and there is no logical reason why HVC staff should be immune. How long should ratepayers continue paying the salaries of staff who effectively no longer have jobs to do and may not have for the foreseeable future? The Federal Government is offering relatively generous payments to those who lose their jobs during the pandemic. The GM is asking what services could the community accept, reduce or do without or what alternative models may be available to deliver the same or similar services .. and so we urge you to consider this and contact councillors with any suggestions you may have. You may also have suggestions about what additional services HVC might be providing during this period which may allow otherwise unemployed staff to be usefully retained. See more

05.01.2022 Community Support Fund and HVC Newsletter. RACT has announced the Community Support Fund which will provide up to $5000 per application to community groups or for projects, to make sure fixed costs and operational challenges are covered during the period affected by the pandemic. To find out more about the grants visit https://www.ract.com.au//news-and-media/covid-19/insurance Huon Valley Council has recently developed a new digital Council Newsletter that some of you would have received. To sign up for it visit http://www.huonvalley.tas.gov.au/contact/

05.01.2022 AGM at 7pm on Tuesday 29 September at Bridge Cottage, Burtons Reserve, Cygnet. There will be a General meeting immediately after. All welcome.

04.01.2022 Here is the HVRRA submission to council about the decision to sell the Cygnet Medical Centre https://huonvalleydotorgdotau.wordpress.com//huon-valley-/

03.01.2022 At last the "independent" AFAC Tasmanian Bushfire Review has been released. Here it is: http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/userfiles/AFAC/AFAC_Review.pdf

02.01.2022 Council does much more than simply fixing potholes and picking up rubbish.

02.01.2022 Community Communications Survey 2019 Have Your Say on Huon Valley Council communications Deadline: 4 December https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SJSSQVH

02.01.2022 https://www.huonvalley.tas.gov.au//200705-Media-Release-Cl The decision to permanently stop operating the Geeveston and Huonville Visitor Information Centres was made in closed council. No councillors are allowed to comment on what arguments were made for and against or voted for what. Transparency in decision-making is very important. Finding 27 of the Board of Inquiry stated that: ‘....Only matters that are properly within the scope of the regulations governing closed ...council meetings should be considered in that forum and close scrutiny is required to ensure that this is the case.’. We understand that there were confidential personnel issues to discuss but these should surely have been considered quite separately from this HVC policy decision.