Council's building stronger partnership

The West Coast and Burnie City Councils have upgraded their formal resource sharing arrangement.

The Councils have been working closely together over recent months to formalise the new arrangement.

“Local Government in Tasmania is facing many challenges,” West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers said.  “Being able to work closely with another Council to share staffing resources, infrastructure etc where appropriate will assist both Councils in the delivery of our services to each community.”

Environmental Health resources from Burnie City Council are being shared with the West Coast Council whilst succession planning in Infrastructure Resources, Human Resources and Planning Resources will also be developed as part of the agreement.  Future shared services and career development opportunities will be explored throughout the term of the agreement, which will be reviewed in 2017.

“We need to continually identify and implement efficiencies and we believe that in entering this agreement both Council’s will benefit whilst allowing us to maintain our individual identities,” Burnie Mayor Anita Dow said.

The arrangement has already fostered stronger relationships between staff from both Council’s, outside of the formal agreement, with Burnie City Council providing a waste collection truck to the West Coast after theirs broke down recently.  This assistance ensured the West Coast kerbside garbage collection service was able to be completed with minimal delays. 

“This is indicative of the commitment of both Council’s to building a strong partnership and to providing assistance between each other where possible,” Mayor Vickers said.

West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers & Burnie Mayor Anita Dow