Stranded Assets - A Resident's Perspective

Canning Bridge area high-rise developments, as presented with motion passed at the City of Melville 2 February Electors AGM

Thank you Mr Mayor

I am asking this meeting to reject the community annual report on the basis that the City of Melville is not committed to providing a safe and healthy Melville. Priority number 4 of the community report on page 22 is “support healthy lifestyles and wellbeing.”

Health and safety is and should continue to be a fundamental obligation of any local government administration.

So why do I think the City has fallen so short on a safe and healthy Melville?

In and around the Canning Bridge Activity Centre Plan area there are numerous cases of the City failing to take ratepayers’ concerns about safety and health into account.

Whenever the City has assessed Development Applications at Canning Bridge, invariably they have produced a responsible authority report in favour of granting excessive bonuses to developments. These reports have consistently ignored legitimate planning objections by adjacent property owners. Some of these are health and safety related. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

By approving excessive levels of bonus heights, the City has created numerous stranded assets. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

The City pays due regard to those parts of the Canning Bridge Activity Centre Plan that support it’s position and ignores any non-compliance that does not support it’s position. The City appears to support bonuses for any Development Application that will increase rates revenue regardless of the amenity, environmental, health and safety effects on the rest of the community.??That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

The City refuses to accept responsibility about environmental concerns that arise during building construction. Examples include unsafe working practices, putting people’s health at risk from carcinogens and poisonous chemicals and doing nothing about enforcing compliance despite their obligations to do so. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

The City refuses to reject Development Applications which do not conform to Australian Standards, leading to road safety concerns at non-compliant crossovers. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

The City refuses to accept responsibility for approving developments which have catastrophic overshadowing impacts on adjacent properties, creating stranded assets. Affected ratepayers can’t sell their property at any price. They can’t escape the newly created unhealthy environment of their erstwhile homes. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

Many ratepayers face an uncertain future in the Canning Bridge area. The amenity of their home has been reduced or removed entirely by the way the City has acted. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

The City has thus far not made any provision for any green space or new parks in the Canning Bridge area. That is not a safe and healthy Melville.

These failings have led to a huge amount of stress and mental and physical health problems for affected ratepayers. The City is seemingly indifferent to the human cost of the unhealthy urban environment they have created in the Canning Bridge area. We should not allow the City to continue to ignore what they have produced. The City should admit that it’s policies and the way they have interpreted them has caused real harm to real people at Canning Bridge. Tonight I am calling for the Mayor and Council to stop sitting on their hands pretending there is nothing wrong with the City’s administration.

Those ratepayers who are adversely affected by the Canning Bridge Activity Centre Plan have a horrible quality of life. The City blithely dismisses these ratepayers as “losers”. It appears that the developers seem to be the “winners” when awarded massive bonuses at the expense of adjacent property owners. As is the City which benefits from increased rates. Is there a conflict of interest at work here?

I urge electors at this meeting to support the motion “That this meeting rejects the community annual report of 2020-21”.??If this motion is carried it will send a strong message to the Mayor and Council that culture change in the City of Melville is both requested and required as a matter of urgency.

I would now like to introduce my seconder to tell the meeting what life is really like in a stranded asset in Mount Pleasant, as created by the City of Melville.

Part 2 is coming soon.........

See all the AGM Motions and listen to the audio of the meeting