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Perth bid for Nedlands rejected

Staff ReporterWestern Suburbs Weekly

Perth claimed up to 500m west of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, including Nedlands Council offices, and areas around the University of WA to the point in its submission to the board last month.

‘An issue is whether it will be a G7 or whether the Government has taken any notice of Cambridge’s proposal to join with Subiaco and create a G5,’ Nedlands Mayor Max Hipkins said.

This month, a Nedlands Council survey of 401 of its 22,400 residents found 56 per cent did not support the G7, while 27 per cent backed the idea, and 83 per cent opposed the Government scrapping the Dadour poll provision allowing residents to vote on mergers.

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Mr Hipkins said it now appeared keeping the provision would not prevent the Government’s merger plans because only the 1100-resident Shire of Peppermint Grove stood a chance of getting the number of signatures needed to call for a poll.

He said the Government’s City of Perth submission would result in any new council losing $360,000 from Hollywood Hospital rates.

The adjacent precinct south-east of the hospital was not in the City of Perth when the Government released its indicative borders in July.

‘(With) every change, the Government makes uncertainty worse, as it’s trying to get us to co-operate, but it is making it difficult for us to take it seriously,’ Mr Hipkins said.

Asked how councils could respect a process that kept changing borders, a spokeswoman for Local Government Minister Tony Simpson said councils were invited to reply to July’s borders and Mr Simpson made it clear he would send his own submissions.

She would not confirm if a leaked map about breaking-up the City of Cockburn was correct to indicate the residential part of North Fremantle would not be in any new western suburbs council after the Robson Report recommended the port suburb be in a G7 last year.

Commenting on the issue, Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said: ‘We understand the need for a buffer zone around the port was a compelling argument.’