THE community will get to have their say on the future of Maylands Waterland during a $50,000 consultation process, which was approved by City of Bayswater this week.
The facility currently loses $228,287 a year, has declining attendance figures and would cost $2.7 million to make it structures, plant and amenities compliant.
Council endorsed a community engagement plan to investigate options for the future of facility, and decided to appoint a consultant, develop a webpage to provide updates on the project, host information sessions and workshops, and conduct a community survey.
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READ NOWBayswater Residents and Ratepayers Association president Tony Green said he wanted to ensure all City of Bayswater ratepayers and residents were consulted, not just Maylands ratepayers.
Councillor Alan Radford said the City needed to ensure ongoing costs of running the park were explained properly during consultation.
“I think (the community) may have a different opinion if they see what’s been paid up to date,” he said.
Cr Brent Fleeton said council needed to “manage expectations” of the public; “this is not going to be Disneyland,” he said.
Cr Catherine Ehrhardt asked whether the possibility of a private company developing a park was possible and a City officer said that would be considered.
Cr Chris Cornish said Bibra Lake’s Adventure World, Hilary Boat Harbour’s The Great Escape and Kalamunda Water Park were examples of private businesses creating destination facilities.
“A private enterprise could run it much better than us,” he said.