Sky's Vic Park Newsletter #26: The Pool, hockey, and Charles Paterson Park
Coming up in November: policy review, hockey, Burswood Park, the library services strategy, arts and culture, Aqualife Cafe, and Charles Paterson Park. Decisions made in October: The Pool and encouraging nominations for council.
Kaya!
I hope you’re all well! The flowers in the area are especially beautiful now in Kambarang. My littlest has been learning more Noongar words at daycare, so as we cycle around he points out the birdak and yonga maar everywhere.
With the council elections over, work on council is regaining momentum after the quieter period I discussed in my previous newsletter. Over the next few months, that will involve learning how to work with the new members of council.
As well as the re-election of Lindsay Miles, Jack Gordon-Manley, Andra Biondi, and Scott Ingram have been elected to council.
Political parties now have a significant presence on council: as well as Cr Dan Minson (a previous State candidate for the Sustainable Australia Party), Cr Jack Gordon-Manley was endorsed by the Greens, Cr Andra Biondi ran for Victoria Park in the 2025 WA elections as a Liberal candidate, and Cr Scott Ingram is also a Liberal party member (though neither Biondi nor Ingram ran on a party platform or with party branding). You can see the public register of election donations here.
I’ll be curious to see what party links means when it comes to local issues in coming years. At the least, people’s political affiliations give some sense of their philosophical outlook and priorities, which can be useful as I try to understand areas of shared interest.
We’ve had the Special Council Meeting where Deputy Mayor Lindsay Miles was elected, and elected members were appointed to committees and groups. I might write a special edition about that another time!
This newsletter includes:
Getting involved;
Coming up in November: policy review, hockey, Burswood Park, the library services strategy, arts and culture, Aqualife Cafe, and Charles Paterson Park.
Decisions made in October: The Pool and encouraging nominations for council.
Inspiration from elsewhere.
Get involved
Celebrate Pride! Or check out other cool local events.
Consider applying for a Community Grant or an Urban Forest Grant.
Share your performance skills!
Don’t want to rely on social media algorithms to keep you informed on what’s happening around the Town? Consider signing up to Town newsletters.
Write a love letter to a tree.
Share your thoughts on our Arts and Culture Strategy, an extension of the stadium’s venue approval, and current development applications.
Talk about your experiences with the Boorloo Bridge.
Call for an end to greyhound racing.
Coming up in November
After a quiet month in October, the agenda is much busier for the November Agenda Briefing Forum, happening on the 4th at 6:30pm. (This meeting allows council and the community to ask questions, ahead of the decision-making Ordinary Council Meeting on 18th November.) As always, I’ll highlight a few items but I encourage you to look through the full agenda.
Item 11.2 - 2025 Policy Review
There are three policies up for review: the Transaction Card policy, Investment policy, and Elected Member Professional Development policy.
Changes to our transaction card statement follow on from a recent audit of six WA councils, including Town of Vic Park. This audit did not find any evidence of misuse of public money here, but did make recommendations for more effective governance procedures.
I’ve previously written about changes to the Investment policy which can help to reduce how much Town money goes into banks funding the climate crisis. I’m hoping that in coming months we’ll get more information from our Chief Financial Officer about what it would look like to take further action on this, but it’s unlikely to happen this November.
Item 12.1 - Victoria Park Xavier Hockey Club - Business Case and Transition to Australian Hockey Centre
After a long consideration of the options for hosting the Victoria Park Xavier Hockey Club, the officer recommendation is to relocate the club within the
new Australian Hockey Centre, subject to ongoing negotiations with Hockey WA to secure suitable access.
If negotiations with Hockey WA don’t provide a suitable solution for the club, the Town retains the option to develop a synthetic turf and grass pitch at Charles Paterson Reserve.
Item 12.2 - Request to sign MRS Form 1 - Perth Entertainment and Sporting Precinct (PESP)
The officer recommendation is to sign a development application form relating to the development of portions of the Victoria Park Drive and Camfield Drive. The report on this notes that, “The signature does not represent approval or consent for planning purposes” (p. 33), and that, “the signing of the DA form by the Town is not to be construed as approval or support for the development, and there will be separate opportunity for the Town to provide comments on the merits of the development once the development application is submitted and assessed through the community consultation process” (p. 34).
Item 12.3 - Endorsement of Library Services Strategy
The recommendation is that Council endorse the draft Library Services Strategy, which has been through a public consultation process.
Item 12.4 - Endorsement of Arts and Culture Strategy
The draft Arts and Culture Strategy has also drawn on public feedback! There are some lovely ideas here, and I’m hopeful about seeing them come to life.
Item 13.1 - Aqualife Cafe - Request by tenant for early surrender of lease
Sadly the cafe at Aqualife has been operating at a loss, despite attempts by both the business and the Town to address issues. The operators therefore wish to end their lease early.
Item 13.2 - Charles Paterson Park - Authority to Invite Expressions of Interest for Sporting and Recreational Use
With calls for a padel tennis facility in the area and a section of Charles Paterson Park having been identified as a potential location, the officer recommendation is that we open up for expressions of interest to ensure a fair process.
Item 15.2 Corporate Business Plan Quarter 1 Progress Report (July - September 2025)
This is a good spot to see some of the details of what Town staff have achieved in different areas, including the locations being audited for our public lighting plan (p. 4); action taken to address homelessness (p. 7); progress on our climate emergency plan (p. 27); and actions supporting our integrated transport strategy (p. 39).
Decisions made in October
The October Ordinary Council Meeting fell within the election period and therefore did not include ‘significant’ decisions. As always I encourage you to read the full minutes or watch the recording, but I’ll highlight a couple of items:
Item 11.2 - Black Swan State Theatre Company partnership – The Pool (Update and Funding).
Mayor Vernon put forward an amendment (p. 25 of the minutes) requesting the CEO to seek Council approval of the terms of the hosting agreement for this production. (Watch discussion of the item, including this amendment, at 34 min.) I voted against this on the grounds that our staff advised it may create uncertainty and lead to the production being moved elsewhere.
Those for the amendment: Mayor Vernon, Cr Anderson and Cr Minson. Against: myself, Cr Devereux, Cr Hamer, Deputy Mayor Ife, Cr Melrosa, and Cr Lindsay Miles. This meant the amendment was unsuccessful.
Council then voted unanimously to proceed with hosting The Pool at Aqualife in December 2026 in partnership with Black Swan State Theatre Company, noting that we will pay $70,000 towards the production (to be offset by ticket revenue share).
Item 17.1, from Cr Jesse Hamer: Local Government Elections.
This motion (p. 46) requires the CEO to "investigate ways to raise the profile of being an elected member to increase nominations in future elections", including various suggestions as to how this might be done.
Cr Devereux added an amendment (p. 49) to include the suggestion that the Town might, “Show behind the scenes glimpses of the processes and engagement opportunities to represent the community”.
Both the amendment and the item were passed unanimously.
Inspiration from elsewhere
I love this story about how a young woman in Manila improvised a bike lane with cones, connected with her community, and ended up sparking a huge investment in cycle infrastructure.
I went to an excellent talk by Katherine Trebeck about The Economy We Could Have - I’m looking forward to diving into her writing, and the many examples she brought up of local governments working to build an economy that works for people.
On Outrage and Optimism, they talked about the Global Mutirão - Brazil’s concept of coming together for the common good.
Prue Oswin talks about helping kids to get around the city safely.
We are all connected
Our local decisions ripple out to affect others. What happens in the world spreads back to us. The only way to build a better world is to care for those beyond our borders, as well as our own community.
If you have money to spare, consider donating, supporting advocacy efforts for those facing violence in Sudan, Palestine, or elsewhere, or finding community with others who are working for justice globally.
That's all folks!
Thanks for reading! As always, if you have questions, ideas, or concerns, please do feel free to get in touch. And if you’ve read this far and found it useful, please consider sharing with friends!
best wishes,
sky.
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