Is this a fool's pool?
The WACA redevelopment and the broader $1.5 billion Perth City Deal is certainly the most complex and exciting project that the Perth City Council is working on.
In Weekend West of 30 January, Perth's Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas makes some comments around the $30 million request for the City of Perth to fund a public pool that I absolutely agree with.
This update is an extension of my own personal thoughts into how I am addressing this issue. Please note this is not the official view of the City or any of my colleagues.
We’ve waited for far too long to have transparent and accountable decision-making at Council House. While the Commissioners had the best interests of the State Government in mind during their time leading the City, it’s clear your new Council has a clear focus on getting the best outcome for residents and ratepayers. How we are approaching this task is testament to that theme.
We all know East Perth needs better public amenities to make it an attractive place to live. I know that firsthand as I live at 63 Adelaide Terrace, a few hundred metres from the WACA.
John Carey is right; a pool and waterslides would be a great addition to the WACA complex. Our job now is to get the best type of facility included in the planning of the redevelopment in return for us tipping in $30 million of ratepayer funds and funding the ongoing annual maintenance bill, which could potentially reach $1.45 million per year if we aren’t careful. This has been confirmed by modelling on three seperate ocassions testing different scenarios.
That’s over several decades. Locked in. No way of getting out of it.
We’ve seen how expensive pools can be well beyond initial construction costs; Bayswater Waves and Beattie Park are the two most recent examples.
That doesn’t mean we just say no to a pool, we just have to be vigilant in planning.
The latest designs that I have seen show an outdoor 6 lane pool squished into the corner of the development.
I wouldn’t be doing my job as a councillor in charge of spending other people’s money if I didn’t run the numbers on what ratepayers may be liable for under the agreement the WACA is asking us to enter into. It’s also prudent to ask for a roof over the facility to ensure the pool is usable in all weather conditions.
Why pay so much for something when you can’t use it all year round? 16 degrees and raining or 36 degrees and hot; it would be a fairly unattractive proposition to use. It’s also not guaranteed to be available to the public, with WACA players/use taking priority whenever they want.
More broadly for Perth, the State Government has worked with the Federal Government over the past few years to secure the $1.5 billion City Deal. Former WA Senator Mathias Cormann helped in a big way to fix the GST and has now delivered this massive investment for Perth.
While it's not the silver bullet for Perth, it sets the private sector up to take advantage of a new backbone for the city.
Our retail heart needs to pivot away from traditional shopping malls and focus on leveraging heritage buildings and adding to the city lifestyle. Approved land uses around the education precincts need to change to encourage private investment for new assets taking advantage of new students in the city every day. We need to rely less on rates from commercial and retail and work on new projects which broaden our city’s revenue streams.
Developing underperforming land in conjunction with the private sector like the horribly long and ugly at-ground car park on Nelson Avenue next to Queen’s Gardens/WACA/Gloucester Park.
We could easily build a triple storey car park (keeping the same number of bays without blocking views or losing amenity) and sell the remaining land for new apartments, yet the State has a quarantine over this area requiring parliament consent to change.
Why aren’t we including this in the broader deal?
As the capital city government, we of course have a role to play here. We need to come to the party with a proportionate investment in the City Deal which meets our strategic priorities. But we shouldn’t rush in and hand over $30 million and sign up to 40 years of pain at possibly $1.45m a year for an outdoor 6 lane pool.
If things change, I’ll of course change my position and judge accordingly, but the public paying the bill deserves to see how things are tracking towards the most important decision we’ll make this year.
Director | Developer | Property Specialist
4 年A great article Brent and have to agree 100% with Brad Pearce on this, in support of a 'MULTIPURPOSE' facility. Being from a family of Rotto solo and squad swimmers, Beatty Park holds the nostalgia of the 1962 Commonwealth Games and is a great facility, yet is a distance to travel for workers and residents of Perth City looking to train early mornings, their lunch hour or after work - so the City is in need of a public pool. Any State Association would agree 6 lanes is RUBBISH. Public facilities need a minimum of 8 lanes and to be 50m. You can easily place half way 25m pop-up dividers in peak times like more recent developed facilities. Great to see the new Council of the City of Perth doing their due diligence rather than step in adhoc. Facilities like these need COMPLETE feasibility on demographic, economic, sustainability and financial implications. Not simply work to allocated 'budgets' to suit grants and the creation initially of 10,000 jobs - what's the lifecycle cost and benefit to the community LONGER TERM. Personally, 6 lanes, open air $30M - NO WAY, I'd prefer to see a reboot of the floating barge for our Swan and some private corporate sponsor for $5M! Now that's a place-maker and an attraction, as we don't need any more water slides, there's specialist parks that accommodate these - KISS theory always works well. Now what to do with that remaining $25M for the WACA, well I'd leave that to our experts on the Perth City Council...
Contracts Manager
4 年Great acticle Brett- there are certainly a lot of balls in the air at this point in time. As a person involved in community cricket any redevelopment with multipurpose facilities that are accessible for a range of sporting/community groups can only be beneficial for the community and families alike and make Perth more liveable as a city/suburb of choice.