City of Stirling delivers plan for a sustainable City with a local focus

City of Stirling Council has prioritised financial sustainability and the continued delivery of first-rate community services in a future-focused Annual Budget.
 
The Annual Budget 2025/26 and Corporate Business Plan 2025-2029 were adopted by Council on Tuesday 1 July, providing clear direction for the City as it works towards the community’s vision of a sustainable City with a local focus.
 
The outcome of a robust integrated planning and budget process, the Corporate Business Plan outlines how the organisation will continue to deliver the longer-term vision and objectives in the Strategic Community Plan, Sustainable Stirling 2022-2032.
 
The City’s Annual Budget, which totals $332.2 million for 2025/26, is the economic tool that allocates resources for the services, projects and programs outlined in the Corporate Business Plan.
 
After completing a range of innovative major capital projects in recent years, this year’s budget features fewer major projects and an emphasis on financial sustainability and asset renewal.
 
An average residential rate rise of 4.5 per cent – or an extra $59 per year – allows the City to remain debt-free while delivering the high level of services the community expects.
 
“We have kept our rate rises well below inflation over the course of the last five years to support our community through cost-of-living pressures during and after the COVID-19 pandemic,” City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin said.
 
“We continue to have some of the lowest residential rates in the state, and this budget helps to ensure our long-term financial sustainability amid rising costs.”
 
The 2025/26 budget includes $1.05 million to deliver upgrades at Carine Regional Open Space designed in collaboration with the community, including new playground equipment, footpath upgrades and picnic facilities.
 
Council has allocated $250,000 for the development of concept designs for Inglewood Youth Parkland to transform the site into a vibrant youth and community hub, featuring basketball and netball courts, mountain bike jumps, a flying fox, outdoor exercise equipment and more.
 
The final concept designs will then be used to seek grant funding to help the City deliver the project.
 
The budget also includes $149,000 for the installation of Lynxight anti-drowning technology at Stirling Leisure – Balga, introducing the same technology that was recently involved in WA’s first documented AI-assisted rescue at Stirling Leisure – Inglewood.
 
“This budget will fund a range of interesting and important projects, from the completion of the Mirrabooka Town Square upgrade to safety improvements in the Scarborough Beach precinct,” Mayor Irwin said.
 
“It will also provide $1 million for our Community Grants Program and $740,000 for event sponsorships, so we can keep attracting world-class events to our City – and the economic benefits that come with them.”
 
The budget has been shaped by the City’s award-winning Walking Together Local Convos community engagement initiative, which identified the top five local issues in each of the City’s 30 suburbs.
 
The suburb pages on the City’s website now outline how the City is responding to those local issues in the 2025/26 budget, including one of the most common community priorities – trees and greening.
 
“Growing our urban canopy remains a key focus for our community, so we have committed to planting 8,000 trees in parks and verges in 2025/26 and increasing the duration of our tree watering programs from two years to three years to reduce early losses,” Mayor Irwin said.
 
“Overall, 784,000 trees and shrubs are expected to be planted in areas across the City by 2040, including 56,000 in the 2026 planting season.”
 
The City’s Annual Budget 2025/26 also includes:

• $13 million for road renewals
• $7.4 million for building renewals
• $4.1 million for drainage
• $3.7 million for community parklands upgrades
• $2 million for sports reserve infrastructure 
• $980,000 for the delivery of the 2025 local government election
• $600,000 for coastal erosion management
• $480,000 for the City’s CCTV network
• $250,000 for the Safer Suburbs Rebate
• $200,000 for Hamersley Community Hub concept designs.