It is hard to imagine any other town in Australia agreeing to have an industrial sized bunker plonked right in the middle of the town centre and in front of their most historic civic building. But we did.
LAST week the Franklin Township Development Committee were persuaded to agree to the construction of a pump house in the middle of Franklin. An industrial pump house in front of the Palais Theatre and right beside the War Memorial as part of the new water scheme.
This bunker like building will be 11 metres long, 6 metres wide and 3 metres high, and in the middle of our town centre. And the noise will be there 24 hours a day as it pumps over one million litres of water per day across to Cygnet.
It is hard to imagine any other town in Australia agreeing to have an industrial sized bunker plonked right in the middle of the town centre and in front of their most historic civic building. But we did.
Apparently a ‘late item’ was added to the last council meeting, and councillors were asked to pass a motion allowing Southern Water to go ahead with this. No questions were asked and all councillors voted it through, some not knowing exactly what it involved. One has to wonder: Why was it a ‘late item’? One with no time for questions or consultation?
Especially since we find it had actually been around for a long time.
And having been around for so long, why did it not rate a mention at our Town Forum two weeks ago?
After the council meeting, a special meeting of the Franklin Township Development Committee was called, during which they were told that this will go ahead whether we like it or not. And that the position of the pump house is not open to negotiation. We were told that we had no choice in the matter; we’ll just have to live with it. However, we would be allowed to discuss how it might look from the outside!
This is a little like being told you’ve been sentenced to death but will be allowed to choose your method of execution.
We were told that should we contest its position we could jeopardise the whole scheme, and Cygnet and Geeveston will run out of water! Are they telling us that if we move the pump away from our town centre, their whole scheme will fall over?
There was only reason given for the pump house placement is that it is the cheapest place to put it, the most cost effective for Southern Water. Oh, well that’s all right then….
I suppose it is probably cheaper to situate a town’s sewage plant right in the centre of the town too. But no one would do that. They place it outside of town. It costs a little more.
This pump house could go any number of places outside of town, especially north of Franklin. It costs a little more.
I understand this was originally a council design that was handed over to Southern Water, along with some of the council engineers who designed it. There is mention of this facility in the Huon Valley Regional Water Scheme paper of November 2008, page 20, with the pump being called a ‘Treatment Plant Pump’.
The Huon Valley council brochure “Your Water, Your Future’ from last year states that the whole scheme has been fully designed and costed. So somebody obviously knew exactly what would be put where, and have done for some time. But they failed to tell us, even in the last town forum.
Southern Water and the Huon Valley Council have told us there is nowhere else it can go. That doesn’t mean there is nowhere else it can go.
So what can we do? Well, yes it is unfortunate that our Township Committee signed off on this proposal. I believe they should have said that it was an unsatisfactory offer, go away and come back with another one once we’ve had a chance to look into the matter.
However, they didn’t and that’s that. But I strongly believe we should do just that. I believe we must fight this – let’s not be steamrolled this time.
Franklin is worth it.
Mike Peters
Franklin
