Special visits and awards for Stirling

As always, this month has been a busy one for the City of Stirling, with a number of major reforms passed, events held and awards won. The City continues to pursue excellence in everything that it does and May has been no different.

The City has delivered several key reforms that will guide the next 5-10 years of progress across social, economic and environmental outcomes including;

• A Sustainable Energy Action Plan 2020-30 which guides our 100% renewables and 70% carbon emissions reduction goals by 2030
• A third ‘Innovate’ Reconciliation Acton Plan 2021-2024 which will include benefits to business and employment outcomes
• A new Access and Inclusion Plan 2021-25 which broadens the City’s commitment to an inclusive and thriving local community for people of all abilities.

Over the past few weeks, the City hosted visits from the Minister for Sport, Hon Tony Buti MLA, to announce the 2022 Aussies Championship will be held in Scarborough, as well as his Excellency The Honourable Kim Beazley AC, the Governor of Western Australia.

The Governor, Deputy Mayor and I visited our Beach Services team in Scarborough, the team and residents at the Nollamara Day Centre and the team at our new family and domestic violence prevention service, Naala Djookan Healing Centre.

We also hosted the Federal Government Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham and the Federal Member for Stirling, Vince Connelly MP, to discuss the City’s strategic infrastructure priorities and update him on our progress with the Commonwealth-funded Trackless Tram business case.

The City of Stirling’s big, bold vision for Trackless Trams is progressing, with the City appointing global advisory and engineering company Arup to determine and assess the range of technology available to support Trackless Trams, along with associated infrastructure requirements and any approvals required as part of the first stage of this exciting project.

With Australian Government funding of $2 million through the Urban Congestion Fund for a business case, the City will work with experts to assess a range of technology to support the implementation of a Trackless Tram system from Glendalough Train Station to Scarborough Beach.

The new Bina Parkland was awarded Park of the Year, long-serving City staff member Keith Rickman was named Waste Champion 2021 (pictured top left) and Scarborough Beach Pool won a Gold Waterwise Award from the State Government.

Now our partnership with the Inglewood On Beaufort Town Team has been recognised for planning excellence and place activation for the Inglenooks project. 

Inglewood on Beaufort previously won the WA Chapter ‘Great Place Award’ and this week took out the 2021 ‘Great Place Award’ at the National Awards for Planning Excellence.

The City also made some really important decisions at Council, chiefly to resolve to recommend that the JDAP reject the Karrinyup West proposal. Earlier this week, JDAP considered our recommendation and deferred its decision to allow the applicant to provide further information on five key items, as they are the ultimate decision-maker.

The Statutory Planning Committee of the WA Planning Commission resolved to approve the new headquarters for Surfing WA – another major project funded by the Commonwealth Government – which I see as an indication that the City conducts thorough and fair-minded processes when dealing with large and contentious development applications, and it is obviously Council’s strong desire to see our recommendation to JDAP upheld as well.

Osborne Ward Councillors Adam Spagnolo and Lisa Thornton visited Grenville Reserve in Tuart Hill to chat to locals and see the recently upgraded lighting and current carpark improvement works.

Delivering more public open spaces in the Osborne Ward is a key priority of the City of Stirling. Recent analysis has identified a significant shortfall of public open space in Osborne Park compared to other parts of the City. 

The Osborne Ward Councillors recently advocated for strategies to address this shortfall given the importance of access to open space for community health and wellbeing.

Mount Lawley’s Beaucott Lane has also recently seen the completion of an eight-metre mural by Dianella artist Dipesh "Peche" Prasad. This is the first in a series of murals planned for the town centre.

Iconic murals are a key part of the vision for the Mount Lawley Streetscape Study, which will see the town centre reinvigorated in coming years.

The City is continuing to look for walls suitable for murals in the town centre, from Walcott Street to Queens Crescent, and Beaucott Lane to Astor Lane. If you are interested, click the 'Read more' link.

The City is now deep into the process of preparing next years’ budget and our plan for 2021-22, and I look forward to continuing to update you on how we progress next month.