WA Police plans to upgrade Wembley Police station while the force heads towards a restructure that will split western suburbs policing between Fremantle and a Perth-based headquarters next month.
“The plans show upgrading of the existing two buildings facing Salvado Road and Cambridge Street respectively and the replacement of existing temporary structures with two new transportable buildings,” a report at a Cambridge Council committee meeting said last week.
Police have been seeking the council’s approval for the plans since February, but they have twice been sent back from the WA Planning Commission for more information.
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READ NOWThe proposals include moving the station’s public entrance from the Cambridge Street-facing building to southern Salvado Road, upgrades including new cladding and roof at the southern-most building and removing shipping containers in the station compound.
New fences would be built on Cambridge Street to stop the public getting into the compound, which would retain its current complement of officers conducting their work in the same schedule of shifts.
A single neighbouring resident was concerned about the potential for greater dust in an unsealed part of the compound when the council sought comment on the police’s proposal.
It was recommended the council’s approval to be sent to the WA Planning Commission (WAPC) and will recommend shade trees have to be planted if a new carpark is created in the compound, a landscaping and reticulation plan, and the ratio of slid to open panel along the new Cambridge Street fence should be no less than 4:1.
The committee agreed to send the proposal with the its provisions to the WAPC.
Police did not reply when asked to comment on why the upgrades were needed, any role they play in the changes to western suburbs’ policing and if upgrades are intended for Cottesloe Police Station after July.