Another side to Council Spin
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 MoreBehold! A rough depiction* of City of Canning’s staff’s light rail plan…. It seems the Councillors of Canning were taken by surprise when news of route popped out at a recent Agenda Briefing. The Barnett Govt’s vision for Perth’s future transport network, Transport @ 3.5 million, doesn’t mention a light rail for Cannington, in fact the City’s response notes “…. it […]
Read MoreUPDATED CONTENT Just out: last of the National Stronger Regions Fund money for councils just announced. City of South Perth the big and only WA metro winner! Oh dear! The City of Canning’s new CBD plan will struggle immediately…. you see, it’s essentially based around putting a party face on Cecil Ave, the road otherwise dominated by […]
Read MoreUpdate: the Council waved through, without any discussion, the motion to adopt the Canning City Centre Activity Centre Plan and authorised the commencement of projects a year before the WA Planning Commission is expected to do same. Presumably the Council thinks its going boldly in to the future and “just getting it done”, but I doubt any of them could […]
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 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 MoreCanning is moving closer to a new start after years under administration! Yes, Canning will be changed to a five ward, two councillor per ward local government area soon, although the Minister has yet to announce it (we just got the quiet word). It isn’t necessary, but its a small matter. We have other things to […]
Read MoreDemocracy continues to be a bit of a laugh at Canning. The City nearly consigned itself away under local government reform, when it ignored community preference and bid to merge with Gosnells instead… Then, oddly enough, staff costs increased significantly while the Council remained suspended…. Now *democracy* seems an outright contestable concept at Canning with the way a Ward and Councillor Representation Review […]
Read MoreUPDATE: As the Ward Boundary and Councillor Review closes, only one of the lower house reps for the Canning area, the Member for Riverton, publicly voiced concerns at the speed and appropriateness of staff and commissioners instigating attempts to get wide-spread changes to the governance model and ward boundaries through prior to the return of a democratically elected Council […]
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 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 […]
Read MoreRadio 6PR’s “Rumour File” tipped us off that the City of Canning was planning to lease a shop at Carousel to use as offices for staff. Rustling up what contacts we could on a Sunday, given Carousel’s market dominance, ratepayers could be forced to pay anywhere between $120,000 – $250,000 per year, not including fit out […]
Read More6PR Radio interview with CanningAccountability 11th June 2014: “….Canning’s fate keeps getting worse under a Commissioner…..” On 10 June 2014 the Minister tabled the report in Parliament and obtained Parliaments permission to publish the report making it a public document. Download a copy of the ‘Report of the panel of Inquiry into the City of […]
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Canning Accountability 