Rarely a Dull Moment - Well, a Bit of a Dull Moment …

Had to happen sometime. Tonight, 23 July 2025, may have been one of the dull moments.

Clocking off a touch after the half hour mark, in an “unprecedented and unFremantle-like way”, Council and the sparsely populated public gallery wisely decided to head on home before the rain bucketed down – again.

In that spirit, this shall be a brief write up, delivered from the comfort of one’s sofa and bed socks watching the video of the meeting!

CORPORATE PLAN 2025-2029

For those who don’t recall what a corporate plan does, the officer describes it best:

“The Corporate Plan outlines services, projects and initiatives that are planned for delivery over the next four years. The Corporate Plan will be reviewed annually through the corporate planning and budget process to maintain a continual four year outlook and ensure the City has capacity to deliver on the aspirational outcomes and objectives.”

Key priorities outlined by the CEO in the Corporate Plan include activating the City Plan, the Fremantle Oval Redevelopment, carrying out the masterplan works for Hilton Park, significantly enhancing Booyeembara Park and works in Samson Park, and the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Plan plus upgrades to street lighting infrastructure will assist in enhancing safety.

If you take a look at the Corporate Plan, you’ll also learn 1.3 million tourists visited the City of Fremantle during 2023-24, generating $530 million for the local economy! And in our creative economy, it’s estimated there at least 2,310 local jobs dedicated creative pursuits.

Mayor Fitzhardinge spoke to the transparency of the Plan, which acts as an important tool for communicating the work of the City to the public. There are many interesting projects within the Plan, not all will happen within the next financial year but it helps with expectations and clarity. We can also glean interesting facts about the City from this Plan.

As remarked by Cr Sullivan during the proceedings during a request for clarification tweaks, there are 42 heritage buildings in the City’s portfolio (out of about 142 public buildings). At least.

Here’s a few excerpts of the Corporate Plan below which depict current projects planned:

Liveable City, Resilient City – a few excerpts of the Corporate Plan and the projects within

Liveable City

Resilient City

The Plan is thereafter monitored on its progress on a monthly basis by staff internally, with updates provided to Council every six months.

Fun quiz question: how many local governments are there under the WA Local Government Act 1995*? Answer: 137!

Council unanimously resolved that:

Council adopt the Corporate Plan 2025-2029, as provided in Attachment 1.

*The Local Government Act 1995 is currently under review by the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sport (CITS) (which until 1^st July 2025 was known as the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC)).

ROAD NAMING FOR SUBDIVISION AT NO. 11-15 (LOT 2680) GROSVENOR STREET, BEACONSFIELD

Concerning the former Beaconsfield TAFE, it is proposed that the streets follow a theme of wisdom and knowledge.

Said names – proposed for the Beaconsfield TAFE site

The report informs us that “the proposed road names selected have a common theme of “knowledge and wisdom” to honour the TAFE College previously built on the site in the late 1960s”.

What’s in a name? The Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4819-2011 Appendix A ‘Road Types’ and we’re not even getting onto Boulevards, Mews, Rambles, and Courts.

Mayor Fitzhardinge confessed she wasn’t thrilled with the Eurocentric names and queried whether it may be possible to defer the item. Cr Thompson agreed and noted that this is a rare opportunity to draw upon more locally relevant names, inclusive of Aboriginal names and local people from our own local road names register. Conversely, Cr Lawver lamented we may have missed the boat on this as there was a chance back in February to push back on the names. Cr Williamson-Wong queried why the list of preapproved road names remains. Particularly as back in 2016 or so, the register was expanded with the specific intent of including more women’s names. And Cr Graham wasn’t too keen on opening the door to what could be a very protracted process in deciding on the best names for the estate, as it could attract quite the debate.

Nevertheless, Council resolved unanimously to defer the item accordingly so that the road names can be reconsidered to potentially include Aboriginal and local women’s names.

WORKING GROUP INFORMATION REPORT

Have you heard? We have a new working group, this one is aimed at addressing the disparity between a residential right to quiet enjoyment of one’s abode versus having a bustling, exciting cultural City. No doubt readers will be able to guess what has inspired this lately.

This is the Culturally Vibrant City (Noise) Working Group.

Back in June, Council requested that the Chief Executive Officer establish a working group to focus on the following and related matters:

“Any changes required to ensure the planning framework, policies and operational practices acknowledge new developments in City Centres should be required to undertake appropriate measures to dampen external noise generated by cultural activities.
That new residential and accommodation developments achieve a high level of sound mitigation through good design and acoustic performance.
Any changes to the City’s policies or planning scheme to ensure venues providing cultural benefits to our city have robust sound attenuation requirements to minimise external noise impacts.
Opportunities to advocate State and/or Federal Governments for legislative reform and other outcomes that will allow our City to balance residential and tourism growth alongside vibrant cultural activities.
Recommendations on the implementation of any of the above.
Considerations on current and/or future enforcement best practices.”

Accordingly, the group has formed and held its first meeting on 9^th July to establish the terms of reference, consider the planning framework, and how best to engage with the community over it. We can expect another update on this before September 2025, provided all goes smoothly.

Stakeholders recommended to be included in these roundtable workshops are:

Western Australian Music (WAM)
Dominic Snellgrove, Cameron Chisholm Nicol (CCN)
Bradley Woods, Australian Hotels Association (AHA)
Local Fremantle venues (such as Freo Social, Mojo’s, Clancy’s, etc.)
A noise consultant expert
A strata management association
Alan Kelsall, Heritage Council Member

Council unanimously resolved without discussion that:

Council receive the following working group updates for July 2025:

COMMUNITY EMISSIONS WORKING GROUP
CULTURALLY VIBRANT CITY (NOISE) WORKING GROUP
DESTINATION MARKETING WORKING GROUP
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY 2024 WORKING GROUP
WALYALUP RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN 2024-27 WORKING GROUP

IN OTHER NEWS

We’re fast approaching the local government elections, which means there shall be a caretaker period during which “significant decisions” by Council will not occur until the elections are done and dusted (Thursday 4^th September to 18^th October 2025, to be precise).

Business as usual activities will still proceed in the meantime, including everything bound by an imminent statutory timeframe.

The preceding meetings may well be jam-packed in the rush to ensure they don’t have to wait until later.

See you in a fortnight!

* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!

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