Planning Minister John Day says the state government is considering mandating more local government involvement in its plan to establish a redevelopment authority to oversee the entire metropolitan area.
Mr Day was responding to concerns raised by the City of Perth last week, which called the proposal divisive and damaging.
The City said it was “extremely disappointed” at the level of local government representation on the proposed authority’s board and the level of consultation on the proposed planning changes.
It also raised concerns the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority Bill would remove it from decision-making processes for major developments within its boundaries.
Mr Day fired back at those claims, saying the state government has consulted widely and has taken into account a range of different views when drafting the Bill.
“Although individual local governments were not directly consulted in relation to the Bill, the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) was personally briefed by officers of the Department of Planning,” Mr Day told WA Business News.
“WALGA provided written comments on 10 March, 2011, indicating its general support for the Bill. As a result of those comments, some changes were made to the Bill.
“Among these was an amendment to require one board and one Land Redevelopment Committee member to have a local government background; prior to that, the Bill had included local government expertise in the categories of ‘relevant qualifications’, so that there was the potential for local government representation, but no strict requirement.”
Mr Day said the department had also consulted with the relevant redevelopment authorities already overseeing redevelopments in Perth, the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Public Sector Commission, Landcorp and Landgate.
“All agencies supported the Bill,” he said.
He also said there was nothing in the Bill to prevent the local government member on the board from also being a representative of the City. “I am currently considering an amendment to further strengthen the local government input into the authority,” he said.
“It is certainly my intention that a representative of the City of Perth, most likely the Lord Mayor if she wished, would be appointed to the relevant Land Redevelopment Committee.”
The Bill, which would abolish the East Perth, Midland, Subiaco and Armadale authorities, was debated in Parliament last week.
