Lighter load for new council

Councillor Martyn Evans, left, moving a motion at Thursday
night's council meeting in New Norfolk.

SOME councillors will be busier than others over the next four years, following the distribution of committee responsibilities at this week's Derwent Valley Council meeting.

Distribution of the committee and statutory roles is generally one of the first items of business dealt with by a new council and the task took up just under 20 minutes at Thursday's council meeting.

Cr Julie Triffett has 10 committees and mayor Ben Shaw has seven, and between them Cr Triffett and Cr Shaw account for more than half of the committees and outside organisations allocated to council representatives.

Cr Luke Browning looks set to have the lightest workload, having been appointed to only two committees. Councillors Paul Belcher, Martyn Evans, Rachel Power and deputy mayor Jessica Cosgrove have three each, while Cr Anne Salt has four.

The number of committees, joint authorities and statutory bodies with councillor representatives was cut from the 40 of the old council to 27 for the new council. One of the victims was the Derwent Valley Council Scholarship Trust Fund which Mayor Shaw said would be wound up and redistributed.

Also gone are the Gleeson Park Special Committee (Lachlan), the William Hazlewood Reserve Special Committee (Magra), the Willow Court Conservation Special Committee and the Derwent Valley Sport and Recreation Committee, as well as the council's Land Sale Committee. The Environmental Management Committee remains, despite not having met for about 10 years.

Councillor participation was also culled from a raft of working groups including Relay for Life, Community Road Safety Partnership, Plenty Valley Link Road, Education Precinct, Tree2Sea and the RAFT (Real Action Future Thinking) group.

The division of responsibilities between councillors was the longest discussion of Thursday night's meeting. The distribution was as follows:

• Cr Julie Triffett: Access Advisory Committee; Environmental Management Committee; Historical Information Centre; New Norfolk Swimming Pool; Tidy Towns Committee; Tynwald Park Development Committee; Southern Waste Strategy Authority; Australia Day; Community Grants; Visitor Information Centre; and four proxy roles.
• Cr Ben Shaw: Economic Development and Growth Committee; Molesworth Recreation Reserve; Local Government Association; Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority; TasWater; Australia Day; Community Grants; and six proxy roles.
• Cr Jessica Cosgrove: Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority; Australia Day; Emergency Planning Committee; and four proxy roles.
• Cr Anne Salt: Derwent Valley Youth Future Action Team; Economic Development and Growth Committee; New Norfolk Business Alliance; Audit Panel; and two proxy roles.
• Cr Rachel Power: Friends of Frescati; Friends of Willow Court; Maydena Community Association; and five proxy roles.
• Cr Paul Belcher: Bushy Park Swimming Pool; Community Grants; Autumn Festival; and one proxy role.
• Cr Martyn Evans: Boyer Oval Management Committee; Derwent Catchment Project; Derwent Estuary Program; and two proxy roles.
• Cr Luke Browning: Community Grants; Audit Panel; and one proxy role.

Mayor Ben Shaw also announced to the meeting that the Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority had selected Cr Power as the local government representative on the board of the Destination Southern Tasmania tourism body.

UPDATE: This article has been updated on November 27 to correct Cr Cosgrove's number of committees and to add the number of proxy roles assigned to each councillor.