Stefanie Kimberley has been a resident of Victoria Park for over 17 years and said there were some residents who were concerned about the suburb being absorbed into a greater City of Perth.
In a residents survey held by the Town of Victoria Park last year, 62 per cent of respondents preferred the Town to stay as is rather than amalgamate with the City of Perth or split up and amalgamate.
In the same survey, when remaining staus quo was not an option, 71 per cent of respondents preferred to amalgamate with the City of South Perth.
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READ NOWMs Kimberley said the group was trying to raise awareness and mobilise the community through their Facebook page, posters around town and a petition against amalgamation.
The petition, addressed to the Legislative Assembly, asks that when considering any reform of local government that the Town of Victoria Park retains its current gazetted boundaries.
Town of Victoria Park Mayor Trevor Vaughan said the Town had a strong community that celebrated diversity, culture and the arts.
‘If the town remains untouched it will continue to offer its ratepayers, residents and business owners these qualities and in addition, a bright and exciting future with more than $8 billion worth of development planned,’ he said.
‘We hold grave concerns for the future of our Town if it were to amalgamate in part or whole with the City of Perth.’
The Town of Victoria Park and City of South Perth have formed a joint taskforce to conduct scenario planning for amalgamation of the two local governments.
City of South Perth Mayor Sue Doherty said the City’s preferred course of action, subject to effective reform happening in the metropolitan area, was to amalgamate with the Town of Victoria Park.
‘Merging local governments will be a costly exercise as significant expenditure will be incurred in relation to providing suitable accommodation, redundancies and systems rationalisation,’ she said.
‘Both the City and the Town of Victoria Park would be looking to pay the costs involved rather than ratepayers as this a State Government initiative.’
– To express your support visit facebook.com/SaveTheTownOfVictoriaPark.