Canning Mayor Patrick Hall has declared it is not sustainable for local governments to rely solely on rates, fees and charges to fund the future of the city, while calling for the development of a multi-storey, city-run carpark.
That call has also raised the spectre of paid street-parking in the vicinity of Carousel Shopping Centre.
A motion, put forward by mayor Patrick Hall, is calling on the city to prepare a study on the viability of a City of Canning owned multi-storey car park in the Cannington city centre precinct by March 2023.
In his rationale behind the motion, Mr Hall said local governments must take every opportunity to explore beneficial enterprises which may result in new sources of income.
He also said it was not sustainable for local governments to reply rely solely on rates, fees and charges, and said multi-level carpark as a “beneficial enterprise” may take some pressure of “at some point” in the future.
“Maybe it is sustainable, but I just don’t think it is particularly savvy for any council to rely absolutely totally, as many of us do right now, on basing all our programs and service delivery on rates and charges.
“Councils in the future need to look at more innovative ways to derive income and this is one that many councils are looking at.”
However, in the officer’s report, Canning Development director Graeme Bride said indicative costs to construct a mutli-level car park would likely be in excess of $40,000 – per bay.
That puts an estimated cost of a 300-bay car park at $12 million, but as Mr Hall was quick to point out, nothing is set in stone.
“We’re always looking at opportunities to forward plan,” he said.
“Quite frankly right now there’s a feeling we don’t have adequate parking.
“We’re thinking about options for the future.
“No one is talking about funding it, no-one is talking about approving construction of a multi-storey bay, we’re just looking at it as an option and that’s a clever thing to do.”
He said the city centre was already under enormous parking stress, adding that there was already paid parking at the Cannington train station and Westfield Carousel.
The parking at Cannington train station is only for Transperth customers and is administered by Transperth at a cost of $2 on weekdays and free on weekends, while parking at Westfield Carousel is free for the first two hours, or four hours with the Westfield Plus app, rising in increments to a maximum daily rate of $35.
“Anybody from this district that goes to that area on the weekend between Bunnings and Westfield Carousel knows that the whole block is practically gridlocked Friday through to Sunday.”
Canning Development director Graeme Bride said a more detailed analysis of paid parking could be considered as a first step in lieu of funding a large stand-alone facility in the first instance, a suggestion that has been shared widely on social media to a somewhat predictable reaction.
“I haven’t been shopping in Perth city for years because of the lack of free parking and have only been to Carousel once since the expansion due to the poor provision for parking,” Steve Johnson said in a post to social media about the topic.
“Perhaps the council should have made planning permission contingent on adequate parking being included in the plans rather than “Oh, we never thought of that” after the fact,” he said.
