When the doors open at the $48 million paranaple centre, at 8.45 am, on Monday, it ushers in the start of a new chapter. The paranaple centre will provide a one-stop shop for the Devonport City Council and Service Tasmania. To pay rates or renew your car registration you will get given a ticket number like at the supermarket deli counter but this one allows you to sit while you wait. Meanwhile, over in the light-filled Devonport Library – built over two-levels – the new digs are expected to become a hub of activity. Up on the top floor at the paranaple, the spectacular conference centre is ready with its unrivalled views, to bring in a new visitor market. But for Devonport ratepayers the service desk on the ground floor will be the first port of call.  The paranaple centre’s main entrance off Rooke Street is where people come to access the integrated customer service centre. Service Tasmania’s North West manager, Tony Cock, said customers are greeted by a concierge at a touch screen service kiosk, where their ticket is issued to be seen by the right person. “It’s to help us guide the customer to the correct location and whether or not they can be best served by a Service Tasmania staff member or council’s customer staff,” Mr Cock said. “Service Tasmania will be able to deliver a lot more council services and we’ve already been doing it on a trial basis over the last 12 months but it’s going to increase markedly from here,” Mr Cock said. Mr Cock said Service Tasmania and council staff will work side by side at the front desk to provide an efficient way to serve the public. Council’s corporate services executive manager, Jeff Griffiths, said it was an added convenience to the community to come to a single counter to renew a licence as well as pay rates. He said Service Tasmania sites around the State are now able to process the Devonport City Council’s payment transactions. “Service Tasmania will be taking care of a large number of our payment services but we also have larger, more complex services we provide such as for building applications and our customer service officers will be able to provide more attention and time to the community to support the delivery of those services,” Mr Griffiths said. He said, council specialists will also come down to meet with customers or take people upstairs to one of the many meeting rooms available. Mr Cock said the customer service concierge will talk to people first to ensure they have the right information and can help satisfy the customer’s needs in a more efficient way. After being issued with a ticket, the customer can choose to read the paper at a sun-drenched library table, grab a beverage at Hudsons Coffee outlet (open at 8am from the Market Square entrance) or have a look around. Mr Cock said the ticketing system offers improved customer convenience. “Our intent is to ensure customers are very well looked after and it’s a comfortable experience for them,” he said. Service Tasmania’s Devonport site did over 130,000 transactions last year. Mr Cock said there are a lot of different options people can use now to access government services and make payments but a lot of people still really want the face-to-face option. PEOPLE FRIENDLY DEVONPORT LIBRARY Devonport Library boss, Jane Forward, said libraries are all about people. She said the new library at the paranaple centre is a people friendly space, beautifully lit with natural light. “One of the things I like about the library space is how its design allows for a lot of flexibility in terms of how we use the space and how customers use the space,” Mrs Forward said. “The ground floor has a strong visual connection to the customer service centre and the cafe on the western end. We expect the ground floor library area to be a very lively, dynamic and busy space.” At the paranaple centre main entrance you turn right to access the library’s ground floor returns area. “We have more than 50,000 items in our Devonport book collection and we’re part of a floating library collection statewide which means people can place holds on an item residing today in Kingston and in a day or two we will have it here ready for collection,” Mrs Forward said. “The transparency of the paranaple centre’s facade has been designed to make it feel accessible and it immediately welcomes the community into the library space in a way the old building never did. “We’re hoping the visibility of the library right in the heart of the city is going to attract many more people to the space. Once they’re here we will be able to share with them all of the different services a contemporary library offers these days.” The first-floor library area is a more quiet, contemplative and relaxing space with quiet corners for reading and research. There are a lot of places to plug in devices and use the free high speed WiFi. “There are some wonderfully comfortable armchairs that were very popular with the community at the sneak peek open day,” Mrs Forward said. She said the library people love and value is still the same place it has always been with the same wonderful staff and volunteers, only it’s in a better building for what it can provide. From Monday the library will open 45 minutes earlier than it used to at 8.45 am when the paranaple centre opens and on Saturday mornings it opens at 9.30 am same as before. PARANAPLE CENTRE ATTRACTS GOOD FEEDBACK Between 4000 and 5000 people came to the sneak peek viewing of the paranaple centre. Council’s deputy general manager, Matthew Atkins, said a lot of people who saw the building going up weren’t aware that it contained so many different community spaces until they had the chance to see inside. Mr Atkins said the council received favourable feedback on the rates to hire meeting rooms and other resources at the paranaple centre. “It offers a different way for the council to operate, where before we were shut away now we’re part of a community facility, and the council only has half of our previous footprint. It’s a much more efficient and productive space,” he said. The next step for the $250 million Living City facelift entails the relocation of Harris Scarfe to the old Harvey Norman site at 17 Fenton Way by about mid-November, to make way for the waterfront precinct. ONLINE ACCESS CENTRE ON LEVEL ONE Devonport Online is a not for profit community managed service established in 1998 to provide low cost access to the internet and training in its use. Devonport Online chairman, Ted Field, said as digital technology changed, their role evolved and training assumed greater importance as people moved from PC’s to laptps, tablets and smart phones. “A big concern was that people who could not afford to purchase the latest digital technology at home, or did not have the knowledge and confidence to use the technology would be left behind, Devonport Online was, and is, there to provide for that need.”   You can find it on level one at the paranaple centre in a window-laden space. HUGE CONFERENCE CENTRE The first major event booked for the conference centre is a 200-seat Tourism Tasmania lunch in September and the biggest event booked so far is a a 400-seat event in January. paranaple arts centre director, Geoff Dobson, said bookings for meetings are going gangbusters throughout the building before a marketing campaign is even instigated. Mr Dobson said at the recent open day visitors gathered on the conference centre balcony loved the chance to watch the spectacle of the Spirit of Tasmania as it sailed out.