Mount Wellington Cable Car Company blames council for cost blowout

Hobart City Council only has itself to blame for the costly cable car saga, according to the Mount Wellington Cable Car Company. LATEST >>

Hobart City Council only has itself to blame for the costly cable car saga, according to the Mount Wellington Cable Car Company.

The comments come after council revealed it had spent over $240,000 to assess the cable car plans, only to reject those plans earlier this year.

Company chairman Chris Oldfield said ratepayers should blame council for doing “everything it could to draw out the assessment process”, thus leading to a cost blowout.

“The delays caused by a series of requests for further information adds to their costs as well as ours,” Mr Oldfield said.

“It was the council’s decision to appoint expensive external consultants instead of using their own planning staff as is the normal practice.

Ratepayers will soon fork out even more, with the cable car company taking council through a tribunal in an attempt to overturn their rejection.

Chris Oldfield chair of the Mount Wellington Cableway Company. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

However Mr Oldfield insisted that too was council’s fault, since they could have approved the project with conditions attached instead of defending their decision to the tribunal.

Residents Opposed to the Cable Car spokesman Vica Bayley hit back at the company’s “disingenuous spin”, saying it was their incompetence which was really to blame.

Mr Bayley said council only had to make repeated requests for information due to the company’s “substandard” development application.

Mr Bayley said the company had complained incessantly about council’s repeated requests for information, but on the one occasion the company appealed to the planning tribunal, those requests were deemed perfectly lawful and reasonable.

“The reason it’s been a long drawn out and expensive exercise is because of the ineptitude of the cableway company and the sheer incompetence of the development application.”

“Blaming it on the council’s processes ignores their own ineptitude and culpability for dragging this out for years and costing ratepayers more than they should.”

Hobart City Council CEO Kellly Grisby said the cost of hiring external consultants to assess the development application was entirely appropriate.

“Given the scope, complexity and importance of the planning application and noting that Council is the land owner on which the proposal was to be located , it was entirely appropriate to engage external independent planners with expertise in dealing with large and complex projects,” Ms Grsiby said.

“The assessment process was conducted in line with our requirements as a planning authority and the request for further information from the applicant that significantly contributed to the delay in the assessment was independently determined by the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal to be correct and appropriate.”

Eye-watering ratepayer cost of cable car saga revealed

The Mount Wellington Cable Car saga has cost ratepayers a quarter of a million dollars and counting, according to the latest figures from Hobart City Council.

Assessing the development application cost over $240,000 in external consultants alone, not even factoring in the hundreds of hours spent by council staff and councillors.

The finance committee figures came in response to probing from councillor Mike Dutta, who wanted to know just how much ratepayer money had been spent on the rejected proposal.

“For us to spend nearly a quarter million dollars on ratepayers money is quite extravagant,” Cr Dutta said.

“It’s not a cheap process. Perhaps it’s time that we came up with a policy where developers of this nature should contribute to the cost.”

Hobart City Councillor Mike Dutta. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Cr Dutta warned ratepayers were poised to fork out even more, with the cable car company taking Hobart City Council to a tribunal in an attempt to overturn their rejection.

The total legal fees will depend on how far the matter escalates, and whether it ends up before the court or a full-blown hearing.

Mayor Anna Reynolds said the legal costs could easily end up being in the hundreds of thousands.

“There will be major legal costs associated with the tribunal process. It will probably be more than the amount we’ve already spent,” Cr Reynolds said.

“Major legal processes are expensive, even though the tribunal is not a full court of law.”

Council is not the only group bearing significant legal costs, with the group Residents Opposed to the Cable Car also joining the legal battle.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds. Picture: Chris Kidd

So far they have raised $90,000 for legal costs through pub trivia nights and online crowd-funding, with more fundraising events planned for the coming months.

ROOC spokesman Vica Bayley said the appeal will “cost a fortune”, but that they were determined to oppose the development.

“Given the scale and scope of the grounds of refusal, we had hoped the proponent would abandon its obsession with a cable car on kunanyi and leave the community to enjoy its mountain with its many special values intact,” Mr Bayley said.

“We respect the right of the proponent to appeal and as a joined party, we too have rights including the ability to bring forward additional grounds we believe the cable car fails when assessed against management and planning rules.”

The Mount Wellington Cableway Company declined to comment.

[e-mail]