Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi would oversee Kings Park and parts of the Swan River if a new submission is successful. Source: PerthNow
LORD Mayor Lisa Scaffidi wants her council to swallow up Vincent, seize parts of other nearby areas and take over some of the state's biggest landmarks in a massive land grab that would create a "new capital city".
In its final submission this week to Local Government Minister Tony Simpson on council amalgamations, the City of Perth pushed for its boundaries to be expanded to take in much more than the CBD.
It wants the whole of Vincent and parts of Cambridge, Stirling, South Perth and Victoria Park.
The submission says Perth also wants key infrastructure and landmarks such as Burswood Peninsula, the University of WA and Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre under its control.
Ms Scaffidi's council also would oversee Kings Park and parts of the Swan River.
The change would see the City of Perth population swell from 17,000 to at least 116,500.
Ms Scaffidi said the push wasn't about creating an empire, but about "re-defining the capital city".
"The local government needs to expand so that it effectively performs the role of a modern, vital capital city and meets the needs of a growing residential population," she said. "This is the time to recognise the role of capital cities and certainly the time has never been better to do this for Perth and WA than now.
"When compared with other Australian capital cities, the City of Perth ranks the smallest in terms of population, and contrasts as practically minuscule when compared with much larger capital city authorities in Brisbane and Auckland both projecting an image of a global city prominent in the region.
"Yet we project such a prominent image right now in reality as arguably Australia's third-most significant city.
"Perth is even subordinate in scale to Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin."
The land-grab proposal has infuriated Victoria Park Mayor Trevor Vaughan.
He said there was no way Victoria Park would sit idly by and let the City of Perth take over Burswood Peninsula, home to the lucrative Crown Perth and the city's future football stadium.
"They want to cherry-pick the things they want not what is in the best interests of Perth," he said.
"We see (City of Perth) as Hannibal Lecter cannabalism.
"The Crown is our biggest ratepayer. In dividing councils, you still have to make sure they are sustainable."
In October last year, Premier Colin Barnett briefed mayors on the long-awaited Metropolitan Local Government Review Panel's findings in regard to council reforms.
The report recommended local government be streamlined by creating 12 councils of about 190,000 people. At the time, Mr Barnett threatened to use government powers to force local governments to change their boundaries.
Ms Scaffidi said the fact that the City of Perth did not have control of Kings Park and parts of the Swan River was ludicrous. "We can't drive tourism while our boundary stops at Kings Park," she said.
"We would like to see greater use of the Swan River for the betterment of the community and if parts of the river were under the City of Perth, we could look at better usage, like water taxis.
"It's about maximising Perth's potential."
Mr Simpson said yesterday he would meet "mayors, presidents and chief executive officers from metropolitan local governments over the coming weeks" to discuss reforms.
"I will have a clearer idea of how long the reform process will take once all the submissions have been reviewed and discussions have been had with local governments," he said.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Perth City's putsch to annex more assets
Dengan url
https://donyblackedet.blogspot.com/2013/04/perth-citys-putsch-to-annex-more-assets.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Perth City's putsch to annex more assets
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Perth City's putsch to annex more assets
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar