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Camera IconThe Leeming Spartans Cricket Club tried to speed up land clearing works at John Connell Reserve to meet DWER’s permit requirements for a cricket pitch extension project. Credit: Eliana Hullett<\/p>\nA controversial $4.68 million cricket pitch expansion project in Melville will not be sped up, despite fears the land clearing permit could expire before any works can begin.<\/p>\n
Local cricket club the Leeming Spartans applied to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to expand their cricket grounds at John Connell Reserve in 2022. DWER granted a land clearing permit in 2025 to clear up to 0.68ha of bushland, including 209 native plants. The City of Melville council also backed the clearing, voting in April to endorse the extension project.<\/p>\n
The permit stipulates all native vegetation must be cleared by July 23, 2027.<\/p>\n
But Spartans members and Melville councillors are concerned developers may not be able to meet the time constraint.<\/p>\n
A special electors meeting was called last month after opponents of the oval redevelopment made a last-minute bid to prevent the bushland clearing. Instead, the majority of attendees supported a motion moved by Spartans committee member Adam Seaward asking that the clearing works be allowed to start sooner than had been intended.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The motion asked that \u201cclearing and associated early works\u201d begin sometime between January and March next year, and that they be prioritised over any \u201cnon time-critical\u201d works. It passed 114-82 and was presented to the council for consideration at last week\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
However, city officers recommended councillors did not accept the motion, claiming Mr Seaward\u2019s proposed timeframe \u201ccannot be met\u201d due to the required design and approvals processes.<\/p>\n
Councillors subsequently voted to support the officer\u2019s recommendation 9-4, with a narrowly passed amendment from councillor Jennifer Spanbroek to change the wording from \u201ccannot be met\u201d to \u201cwill be challenging to meet\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more acceptable to have a word like that than to say \u2018cannot be met\u2019 because then it actually sends a message to the community like just a blanket \u2018no forget it, don\u2019t even bother trying\u2019 – I just don\u2019t think it actually instils confidence in the officers,\u201d Cr Spanbroek said.<\/p>\n
Cr Clive Ross said this was \u201ctime wasting\u201d to soften language and it should not be allowed. The amendment carried 7-6.<\/p>\n
Cr Spanbroek attempted to pass an alternative motion earlier in the meeting, supporting Mr Seaward\u2019s plan to speed up the land clearing works. This lost 6-7.<\/p>\n
Camera IconThe Leeming Spartans Cricket Club tried to speed up land clearing works at John Connell Reserve to meet DWER’s permit requirements for a cricket pitch extension project. Credit: Eliana Hullett<\/p>\n
It requested an investigation into the city\u2019s ability to stage the expansion project and prioritise land clearing \u201cbefore the expiry of the existing clearing permit\u201d, with an aim to finish clearing by the end of March 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about rushing the project. The motion does not ask for the whole project to be completed by March. It simply asks officers to investigate whether the sequence of works can be rearranged,\u201d Cr Spanbroek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remainder of the project still proceeds in accordance with council\u2019s previous resolution. In other words, it\u2019s clear first, construct when practical and don\u2019t unnecessarily lose the permit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She referenced several things that \u201ccould go wrong\u201d if the clearing was left too late, such as contractor availability, subcontractor shortages, skilled labour shortages, illness, machinery breakdowns and supply chain delays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis motion is about reducing project risk, not accelerating the project. Investigating an alternative staging sequence is a low risk measure that could significantly reduce the risk of missing the clearing permit deadline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Director of environment and infrastructure Jim Coten said there wasn\u2019t a major difference between the officer\u2019s recommendation and Cr Spanbroek\u2019s motion, as timeline efficiency was considered as part of any project management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact for staff is minimal. What is proposed in this is really what we would just be doing as part of normal project management,\u201d he said. \u201cThis just highlights the importance of having it finished earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DWER conditions state the permit holder must not clear any native vegetation after July 23, 2027. Another permit would be required to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial $4.68 million cricket pitch expansion project in Melville will not be sped up, despite fears the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,75,135,124827,44,46,84,8080,588,85,45],"class_list":["post-835775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-environment","tag-local-government","tag-melville","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-politics","tag-south","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835775","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=835775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}