Friday 1 July 2011

Congratulations: Canning Bridge

Woowie! I did the big Toyota leap today when the Planning Minister, John Day, announced that WA State Cabinet has endorsed our plan for Canning Bridge precinct.

Congratulations to all of the hundreds of community members on both sides of the river who have contributed to this plan. Big thanks also to the thoroughly professional staff members and consultants who put it together. Sincere recognition too for the Councillors of South Perth and Melville who worked on and supported the ideas.

This development will be about diversity of lifestyle choices, a lot less use of cars, lower environmental impact and a living space where pedestrians come first. A community style called Transit Oriented Design is based on being close to public transport. The Minister said that he expected that the final developments could see over a billion dollars of State, commercial and private investment in the precinct.

Today’s announcement echoes recent policy announcements indicating that our city will rely less on cars and a lot more on public transport. Detailed planning can now commence, for the myriad things that go into a place where people want to live. Changes won’t happen tomorrow but we are certain to see progress over the forthcoming years.

The first step is likely to be a new bus facility, right off the bridge. This will make the bridge safer, easier to use and will ease the crowding that comes from its popularity. The latest designs were shown this week; they get better with every review.

In living memory the precinct has changed from one with dairy farms and horse transport to being at the front of WA’s developments. My vision is that we continue to be involved all the way, and ensure that this happens the way we want it to. Let’s preserve what we love, change what we need to and build a community that is durable.

Other news of developments in the City this week included the latest proposals for widening of Canning Highway, to accommodate buses or light rail and exciting plans for Manning Hub. Our new street verges policy almost bans plastic grass, while allowing diverse plants and street gardens.

Gee, it’s good to be on a Council that works on strong planning while recognising our past. What a City!

What are your thoughts? Let’s have more positive, optimistic, imaginative ideas for the future of our city. Please click ‘Comments’ below to add your thoughts. Just log in as “Name” (no password required) or email me and I’ll publish your words right here.

4 comments:

Leanne said...

Wow well done - glad to hear that the council is trying to sort the canning bridge parking before the south perth one goes ahead - sure will be interesting to see what happens and how long it will all take. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter,

I attended the Canning Hwy town hall the other week and was distressed by the lack of information regarding safety and the environment available for discussion at the event. There was no information available (the Worley Parson employee I spoke to said it had not been considered!) on the addition of pedestrian bridges or maintaining the underpass in front of the primary school once the highway widens by 2 lanes and about 25m. I want to know if trees will be planted to reduce noise and what, if any, efforts will be undertaken to maintain the lovely suburban shopping/walking environment that exists in the area. Perhaps you could support the highway widening initiative by actively pushing for improvements for safety and the environment as a part of the project?

Sharon Cooke said...

Thanks Peter
And great news on Canning bridge!!
Well done. I look forward to seeing it happen.

Anonymous said...

Although I have some reservations about certain aspects of the proposal I do agree that it's generally going to be a good thing for the area (I live just down the road). Currently the station is very difficult to access for people and quite dangerous too having to cross all that traffic.

Hopefully the housing won't be super epxensive like on the west side of the area.. housing needs to be affordable for middle income people too, not just cashed up miners and businesspeople!