THE City of Swan has conceded public consultation over the design of the Midland Oval redevelopment has not satisfied the community who feel their suggestions have not been listened to.
It comes after the Midland District Community Group (MDCG) group slammed a report advising council to ignore motions raised at the annual meeting of electors in December 2017 calling for a better design that retained public open green space as a central park.
MDCG spokesman and heritage architect Patrick Irwin said the community has been fighting for the past 30 years to keep Midland Oval and called on the council to step up and better represent the community it was elected to serve.
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READ NOWMr Irwin – who submitted an alternative plan retaining the oval as a Central Park as part of his motion – said he was outraged a viable alternative that kept the oval was not given due consideration.
But Mr Irwin said claims council had increased the public open space to 1.9ha, the current size of the oval, was a joke because the city definition of public open space included paving, footpaths and verges.
“We’ve been consistently asking the council to listen to the community, and understand a major regional urban centre needs to have a park, not a subdivision,” he said.
“Another tiny patch of grass like Juniper Gardens is not adequate for a growing urban centre with the level of infill Midland is experiencing.
“We must ensure council avoids this irreversible planning disaster.
“The community will not be silenced, we’re not going away and this will become an election issue if council continues to ignore the opportunity to work with us on a design the community really wants.”
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