{"id":462567,"date":"2026-02-06T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462567\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:18:15","slug":"drama-continues-over-217-5m-perth-park-project-as-site-works-officially-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462567\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama continues over $217.5m Perth Park project as site works officially begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A war of words has erupted between the Town of Victoria Park mayor and a State MP as site establishment works start the $217.5 million Perth Park project at Burswood Park.<\/p>\n

Fences and temporary offices have started going up and some vegetation removed at the site for the controversial racetrack proposal.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, Town of Victoria Park mayor Karen Vernon said it would be a \u201cmonstrosity\u201d and claimed the works had started prematurely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WA Government lodged a development application for the project this week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town is now required to assess the DA and report its recommendations to the WAPC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KarenCamera IconKaren Vernon at a drop-in session for the Entertainment and Sporting Precinct at Burswood Park. Credit: Riley Churchman\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Ms Vernon claims that the Department of Planning Lands and Heritage had not been advised by Main Roads WA site establishment works had started.<\/p>\n

\u201cDPLH confirm that construction management forms a part of the development application assessment process and would be a condition of any approval,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSite establishment works should not commence until a construction management plan (or similar) is approved by the WAPC and that condition of approval is cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town has not been given all details of the extent and location of the fencing or site establishment works.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet again the WA Government fails to follow any due process for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parliamentary Secretary and project committee chair Daniel Pastorelli said in a reply to Ms Vernon\u2019s post the town opted out of being part of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had the Town of Victoria Park resign from four project working groups late last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"FencingCamera IconFencing will close of the park throughout the construction. Credit: Sophie Gannon<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the town was still working in those project groups, you would have a seat at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou opted to not honour your role as a local government authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real shame that you are using your position as mayor to cause confusion and stoke fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Pastorelli accused Ms Vernon of \u201cpedalling misinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DA which was lodged recently is regarding the land north of Roger Mackay Drive, on the VenuesWest-owned land as part of the stadium precinct. WAPC will advertise that DA soon as per normal process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe site establishment works that begin this week is situated on the Burswood Park Board owned land and all necessary approvals are in place for these works.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was announced late last year site establishment works would begin early 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal residents received information regarding property condition assessments earlier in January, ahead of early works beginning soon,\u201d Mr Pastorelli said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A war of words has erupted between the Town of Victoria Park mayor and a State MP as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,46,85,45],"class_list":["post-462567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-perth","tag-sports","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}