The City of Fremantle is determined to take a slice of the Cockburn coast from its neighbouring council, with plans afoot to employ an officer to investigate the proposal.
The City of Fremantle is determined to take a slice of the Cockburn coast from its neighbouring council, with plans afoot to employ an officer to investigate the proposal.
Fremantle has its eye on a swathe of coastal land south of its border, encompassing the Old Power Station and the Port Coogee redevelopment.
Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said council had budgeted $30,000 this coming financial year to employ a part-time officer to formulate an environmental and financial case for the boundary change.
“We’ll be fairly aggressive in making this bid,” he said. “The residents of Hamilton Hill and Coogee will not lose their identity. As long as there are savings at the end of the day and a better delivery of service I don’t think there’ll be a problem,” he said.
Mr Tagliaferri said Fremantle was in a better position to look after current and emerging coastal developments, as it was debt free and had a good track record of managing development on its harbour.
However, Cockburn mayor Stephen Lee is not so positive about the move, likening it to a quick fix land grab and one they would defend vigorously.
“If they want us to take them over, we’ll be more than happy to hold talks. Until then, they can get back on their bike,” he said.
Mr Lee said it was ironic that Fremantle was now keen to take responsibility for coastal developments when he understood they had objected to some of them taking place in the first instance.
“We are creating some of the best residential developments along the coast and have done all the hard yards. Fremantle should relax and concentrate more on planning a sustainable future for the city they’ve already got,” he said.
If Fremantle goes ahead with lodging its bid to the Local Government Advisory Board, the board will conduct a full public inquiry before making a recommendation to local government minister, Ljiljanna Ravlich.
Western Australian Local Government Association president Bill Mitchell said Fremantle’s play for Cockburn, and the City of Belmont’s recent request to extend its boundary over Belmont Park in the Town of Victoria Park, was indicative of some council’s seeking better economies of scale.
“They’re looking at the bigger picture and thinking if they can get more land they can make the most of their size,” he said.
“But it really is just massaging around the edges. They should be looking at what services they’re providing and how they’re going to be paid for.”
Mr Mitchell maintained wide-scale structural reform of local government was urgently required and said it would be releasing its own “white paper” with a number of final recommendations from its Systematic Sustainability Study at the end of August.