When Council meets in open session next Monday (25/7/2022 agenda), it will dump two “economic recovery projects” – “Zinc Link” and “Greenshoots” – before they really started.

For residents who want to know how major council projects are going, the go-to item in Council meeting agenda is the “Capital Works Status Report”.

Normally this report simply reports. It provides informative progress reports on capital projects. But at this meeting the report recommends that two projects go no further.

In the section headed “Interest Free Loan Funded Economic Recovery Projects” you will read about projects entitled “Zinc Link” and “Greenshoots”. The penultimate paragraph says

“this report recommends that these two projects do not progress and are withdrawn from Council’s future capital works programs”

As far as Greenshoots is concerned, how quickly things changed since the last Council meeting (27/6/2022) where we were told that the project was continuing but without the proposed grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund.

Many in Glenorchy may not be familiar with the term “Zinc Link”. It refers to a disused rail spur from Derwent Park across the Brooker Highway by bridge and on to near the Zinc Works.

If you search for “Zinc Link” in the entire Council website and all historical meeting agendas and attached reports, you will find very little.

• “new gravel pathway along sections of the Zinc Link connecting the intercity cycleway to Lutana as part of stimulus measures” appears in the list of potential projects arising from the Paths, Tracks and Trails Project (open council 25 May 2020, agenda item 10).
• If you drill down into the “Marine and innovation precinct” in the Economic Recovery Program page on the Council website you will see a reference to “Council investment in connecting infrastructure (the Zinc Link)”.
• All versions of the “Prince of Wales Bay Marine and Innovation Master Plan” in the website mentions the Zinc Link as part of a medium term action.

Zinc Link does not appear in any list of economic recovery projects published by Council – except in the fine print of the website.

It is truly fortunate that Council borrowed only a small “interest free” five million dollar loan from the State Government, because its management of the project list (and the projects) has been opaque and uninformative.

Some modest/cheap projects on the list seem to have been successful but most will be lost in the mists of time.

Should we be nervous about the Jobs Hub – a project most would regard as relatively successful –  when its continued operation depends on continued State Government grants? The subject of grant funding to 2025 is on the agenda of the closed session next Monday.