Merge between City of Fremantle and East Fremantle at core of reform submission

A merge between the City of Fremantle and East Fremantle was at the core of the local government reform submission sent to the Local Government Advisory Board last week.

The result of a community survey revealed the support for the two areas to merge and create a new local government authority but strongly rejected a complete merge with the City of Melville.

“We’ve always maintained there are benefits that a carefully considered reform process could provide, and when the state government released its key planning document, Directions 2031 and Beyond' in 2009, the council resolved shortly thereafter to support a local government structure based on the major activity centres defined in that document,” says City of Fremantle chief executive officer Graeme Mackenzie.

“One of the key principles adopted by council was that no local government should have more than one major activity centre within its boundaries, as the competition for allocation of resources to each centre would be compromised - a council would struggle with a multiple focus and the centres could underperform,” says Mackenzie.

In July, the state governments preferred option was a merger between Fremantle, East Fremantle and Melville.

“The key issue the City of Fremantle has with the current state government proposal is that Melville's key activity centre is Murdoch, and of course Fremantle's is Fremantle.

“Of the 14 local governments being proposed by the government, the Fremantle/East Fremantle/Melville merger is the only one that would contain two major activity centres as defined by Directions 2031.

“Accordingly, the city maintains its position of supporting sensible reform based on strengthening the major activity centres around the greater Perth metropolitan area.

“This position has been formalised in our proposition to the Local Government Advisory Board,” says Mackenzie.

The local government reform submission also included a change to the eastern boundary to align it with Stock Road and to transfer Samson and part of O’Connor to the City Melville.

The submission also included a change to the southern boundary with a new boundary to incorporate the localities of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee and a change to the western boundary to incorporate Rottnest Island.