The comments from Victoria Park Mayor Trevor Vaughan were in response to a City of Perth plan to extend its borders to include Burswood Peninsula, which is home to Crown Casino, one of the Town’s major ratepayers, and the planned stadium development.
The expansion plan is part of the State Government’s local government reform proposal, submissions for which were recently closed to councils. Victoria Park is strongly opposed to amalgamation.
Mr Vaughan said that if council borders were to change and the Burswood Peninsula was no longer in the Town, rates in Victoria Park could go up by the equivalent loss of rates from the peninsula.
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READ NOW‘The revenue from the peninsula is about $4.5 million. This does not account for the anticipated rates from a fully developed peninsula, which could be double or more.
‘At present, rates would be expected to increase by 15 per cent if the peninsula revenue is lost,’ he said.
‘We are concerned that the City of Perth may decide to limit motor vehicle access to the City and thus fringe CBD areas, such as Victoria Park, will become the area where cars are parked and then commuters access the City by light rail or busses. We will not be a car park for the CBD.’
Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said in the event of the loss off ‘key items’ such as those on the peninsula, Victoria Park could still ‘amalgamate with local governments to their east and grow a rate base that way’.
‘Heavy reliance on a stakeholder who they may be unable to service in a sense other than through the provision of basic services is not appreciating that key stakeholder for what they bring to a city,’ she said.
‘There are other more pressing issues right now, such as managing traffic congestion and movements to stadiums in this particular location that could be handled more professionally via a bigger entity,’ she said.
‘Think about the Burswood Peninsula in 10 or 20 years when fully developed.
‘The connection with Victoria Park will be very much less important to Burswood than its relationship with the CBD.’