Another side to Council Spin
I hope that look on Minister for Housing, Peter Tinley’s face above isn’t about winging it at today’s media conference to launch “Bentley 360”, the City of Canning’s premium new precinct. Under tough media questioning he’s just announced there will be “no net loss of public housing” in the largest remodelled infill project in Perth! […]
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UPDATE: Highest viewed post in 2018. Nobody wants to see scarce resources wasted like this. Bentley Community Garden The shabby vista in the photo above, taken two weeks ago, appears to have cost taxpayers and ratepayers, one way or another, circa $100,000/yr in benefits and may have gone on as long as 10 years*, while […]
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THANK YOU to Canning Times for publishing info that gives an idea of how concerning things have become at the much-investigated City of Canning – this time, and once again, in relation to the near-billion dollar Bentley Regeneration project. One land plot, all-income affordable housing, 12 parks, buses running through centre – density done best… […]
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When WA Business News announced* in 2015 that a Chinese developer had won a big infill job in Canning, no-one imagined the developer, Sunlong Corporation, would go on to win BIG TIME. In a Council area almost entirely built out but with a huge infill quota to meet, a crucial 25h site became available courtesy of the Housing […]
Read MoreWith the Canning area now boasting Australia’s first Aboriginal Treasurer, MP Ben Wyatt, WA’s first Asian Mayor, Paul Ng, and one of the largest, imminent infill areas this close to the CBD, its time to stop portraying it as some kind of “multicultural poor town”. Former Premier Colin Barnett, when promoting the then-promised MAX light […]
Read MoreThe image above repeatedly goes up on a Facebook now being used to post community event notifications on a new online initiative of the City of Canning: “What’s on in Canning?”. The event, an upcoming dinner run in part by Bentley Community Focus, isn’t the problem – the content that can be found on the Facebook (FB) used to upload it, which the owner invites […]
Read MoreThe City of Perth fired its CEO as it refreshed its council and took the CBD in a new direction. Quick, clean. Done. But not Canning….. Our first democratically elected council in years not only kept on a CEO appointed whilst Canning was under administration (Lyn Russell – responsible for many questionable decisions since), it rushed her on to the panel that will select her […]
Read MoreSo I was at Electrikhana 2016 on the weekend and heard the word a deal for $3 million in Tesla’s Model S electric vehicle (EV) was going through. That’s 20 cars of the future at $150k each, to power a new limousine service. But the real news was this year’s Australian Electric Vehicle Assoc’s car show was packed, from young […]
Read MoreWe think former Mayor Joe Delle Donne makes some good points…. Clearly concerns about Canning continue… clearly the majority of our new Councillors and the Mayor will have little to no real experience in local govt…. clearly the staff who will advise them have been up to all sorts of things and frequently just didn’t do things […]
Read MoreThe City of Canning is the 9th largest Council in the metropolitan area*…. yet it has just been revealed as having the third lowest amount of tree canopy in Perth. The only councils scoring more disastrously than us are Fremantle and Belmont. A lot of this decline is being related to infill development, of which Canning is […]
Read MoreSurprised to see today one of Canning’s lovely river suburbs – Shelley – declared the second-worst rental suburb in Australia! At bottom: Two mayoral candidates express concern about infill. As reported today in Business News*: The riverside suburb of Shelley has been given the ignominious title of the second worst suburb for rental problems in Australia….research from rental […]
Read MoreChair of Canning Commissioners, Steven Cole, attached a statement to the usual highlights brochure produced at the adoption of the City’s 2015/16 budget . Mr Cole should be commended for putting Canning’s true financial position on the record, and especially as Canning’s first new council in years is due to be elected in October. CanningAccountability offers […]
Read MoreLocal paper Canning Examiner hits hard this week with its comparison of the City of Canning’s bloated wage and staff structure compared with the councils that were due to absorb it under local government reform:- City of Canning today is paying almost double the amount for employees it was in 2008-09 Employees earning over $100,000 near trebled […]
Read MoreUPDATE: Commissioner Steven Cole’s budget statement, as Canning’s true financial situation is put on record, HERE Chairman of Canning Commissioners, Steven Cole, issued a stern statement about Canning, its finances, and what a new council should do through the local papers yesterday. He also told entities who pose questions the City doesn’t like that “this must […]
Read MoreThere appears to be a serious problem at the City of Canning, that cannot be blamed on the long gone Council anymore. According to Treasurer Mike Nahan, in Parliament today, the staff at Canning plan to hit ratepayers with a massive rate rise to fund their rampant spending, huge pay rises, care packages (before and […]
Read MorePoor management of the reform process by former Commissioner Linton Reynolds and Chief Executive Lyn Russell meant Canning nearly disappeared forever. It survived only because local govt reform suddenly collapsed – at least for now. However, after years of being “under administration”, the City of Canning remains a long way off from having a democratically […]
Read MoreIn the last 48 hours a belief flared up that Linton Reynolds was dismissed as Commissioner at the City of Canning because he spoke out against reform. The reality is that, as a Commissioner, Mr Reynolds was largely unknown outside of Canning, and almost entirely unreported upon by major media – and certainly as related to his […]
Read MoreMinister for Local Govt, Tony Simpson, is about to make an announcement in Parliament that will determine how Canning is prepared for reform. Commissioner Linton Reynolds is today serving his last day at Canning. Three new Commissioners will be appointed to transition Canning to its new future.
Read MoreCanning has not fared well under administration. It failed to seize the day on local govt reform, a valuable developer partnership was lost and costs skyrocketed. We now have a CEO who apparently served less than full term at both preceding appointments – and a Commissioner who seems to act beyond his station as a “short-term, unelected government appointee“. The State Govt’s […]
Read MoreToday’s Canning Times reveals employee load at Canning has blown out so much under Commissioner Reynolds the administration building, only built in 2006, can’t contain them. Public servants are to be moved to a shop at Carousel for a minimum of two years. It will not only house 18 staff unable to fit in our principal council […]
Read MoreCanning is spending a fortune leasing a shop at Carousel in a bid to develop the Canning City Centre. Yet the City recently lost a $700m partnership with the innovative* Dept of Housing: the Bentley Regeneration project. The question has to be asked: Does the City have the skills to manage developers, beyond creating structure plans, or […]
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Canning Accountability 