The Northern Midlands Council has now approved a 24-hour fuel station on Tannery Road in Longford, despite initially rejecting the development due to road safety concerns.
Mayor Mary Knowles said the council had no choice but to approve the project after the Department of State Growth gave consent for a new vehicle crossing, addressing the council’s initial traffic concerns.
“Given that the property is zoned general business and Tannery Road is a state highway controlled by the Department of State Growth, council’s only grounds for refusal under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme related to traffic generation at a vehicle crossing, level crossing or new junction,” Knowles said.
“The final decision regarding access rests with the Department of State Growth and after considering feedback from council regarding traffic concerns, it gave written consent for the new vehicle crossing which meant that all the planning scheme requirements had been met.”
“As such, the only course of action left open for council was to consent to the issuance of a permit, subject to widening of the entrance and exit to and from the fuel station as required by the department.”
The U-turn follows a unanimous decision by councillors in 2023 to reject the application for the Lowes BP fuel station due to community opposition and concerns about the road’s width.
Locals had raised concerns about the safety of large vehicles turning into and out of the site, as well as the potential increase in heavy vehicle traffic at the entrance to the town.
Greens MP Tabatha Badger also weighed in on the debate earlier this year, commending the “small, passionate, proud group of Tasmanians taking on big oil”.
She said while taking part in a community rally in May, those attending “witnessed several near misses between cars and trucks” outside the site.
“There is no safe place for cars to pass around and vehicles were stuck waiting for turning trucks, so much so that they backed up to the Illawarra roundabout and were then holding up traffic on that road or highway,” she told Parliament in June.
“There is no opposition to the concept of a 24‑hour refuelling station in the region, it just needs to be in the right location and there are other options right along the main highway just a few hundred metres away.”
