Two years after a controversial attempt to reinvestigate a 100 per cent public park project near Canning Bridge, Melville council is still discussing whether to make the reasons for opposition clearer.
Melville council voted in April 2023 to approve the Moreau Mews Town Square development. It involved the demolition of two office buildings on the corner of Kishorn Road and Moreau Mews to fully transform the council-owned site into a public open space.
Almost a year later, Cr Scott Green submitted a notice of rescission to reverse that go-ahead.
His February 2024 motion sought to reinvestigate development options for the site, but was withdrawn before the meeting began after elected members received a confidential statement of impact from officers, which detailed legal and financial advice and information about contractors.
Cr Green’s move to reinvestigate the development also met with an immediate public backlash.
He has now submitted a motion to make the confidential information about the development from that time available to the public. This passed 9-4 at last week’s meeting.
“I really do believe the community deserves to have the full picture of the impacts, firstly of the April (2023) council resolution but then secondly for both of the rescission motions,” he said.
“I think this is not only important for transparency, but also for future consideration by not only council but by the community for any future decisions that council may make.”
The move came after another councillor, Michael McGoldrick, made a recent attempt to pass a second rescission motion on the project. In an identical turn of events, that prompted Cr Karen Wheatland last month to move a motion to also make public a statement of impact related to his motion.
Cr McGoldrick again asked councillors to revoke council’s 2023 decision to go ahead with Moreau Mews. Instead, he said it should assess options for mixed public open space and property development on the site.
A tied vote from councillors meant his motion failed and plans will continue to progress the development of 100 per cent public open space.
Cr Wheatland’s motion passed unanimously.
Cr Green said his motion was a “carbon copy” and should be treated the same for consistency but some councillors questioned his intent in making two-year-old information public.
“I think this motion is an attempt to justify previous actions. It’s self-interest that’s brought this motion and I think that is actually against the principles of motions being brought,” Cr Clive Ross said.
He retracted this statement following a point of order called by mayor Katy Mair, but said he was still cynical.
“I’m concerned this is not in the interest of the community … So for that reason, I don’t support it and I don’t think it should be supported,” Cr Ross said.
Cr Green said the assertion was “completely unfounded” and he would not respond to it.
Cr Glynis Barber said she supported transparency, but didn’t think this was necessary given the motion in question never came to council.
“Why are we releasing a statement of impact for a motion we never considered? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. How can we even distribute that to the public when we didn’t consider this motion?” she said.
Cr Green said it could be released publicly because it was technically placed on the agenda for the 2024 council meeting, and had incited significant public response.
A petition signed by more than 3000 electors was submitted to the city requesting 100 per cent open space at Moreau Mews be supported, and a special electors meeting was held in February 2024.
He said this was not another “last-ditch” attempt to derail the public open space project, but he wanted to provide residents with the full picture.
More than $5 million was allocated towards the project in the 2026-27 budget. Some $650,000 has already been spent on it, and demolition works are underway.
The site could include a large open turf for recreation, a barbecue area, playspace, interactive water feature, areas for community events, cafe and streetscape upgrades.
Councillors voted unanimously last week to progress contracts and tenders to construct the park.
A final design is still being developed, and construction is expected to begin in 2027.
