Scottsdale se prépare à des suppressions d'emplois dans une scierie

A north-east Tasmania council wants talks with timber company Gunns this week on the future of a local sawmill.

There is concern Gunns wants to close the Scottsdale sawmill, which employs 120 people, and move operations to the FEA mill at Bell Bay.

Gunns says it is interested in the sale of the Bell Bay sawmill, but will not confirm if it has put in a bid for it.

Dorset Council Mayor Barry Jarvis says he has met with the Premier about the potential job losses, but he also wants to meet with Gunns.

“We certainly intend to initiate some trying to get a meeting with Gunns at their senior management level,” he said.

“We’ll investigate where they’re at and what they see for the north east as far as their mills go, obviously that depends on the FEA process, but just to see what the long term strategy is.”

The Council is also investigating renewable energy projects to create jobs that could be lost from the Scottsdale sawmill.

Mr Jarvis says the council plans to look at studies on wave energy projects as well as the mothballed Musselroe Windfarm.

“We need to diversify a little bit in the north-east, or diversify a lot,” he said.

“There are opportunities to further do that and we really need to be getting some hard work on the ground to identify where the areas are we could chase some investment in the north-east in some of those different projects.”