The City of Canning has deferred a decision to scrap stage 3 of the Southern Link Road Project, and $4 million in grant funding over the next three years, until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submit an assessment of the proposal.
Southern Link Road stage 3 would connect the southern end of Gerard Street to Grey Street in Cannington and, following construction at the northern end of Gerard Street, would connect Orrong Road, at McDowell Street, to Albany Highway, at Liege Street.
Canning Councillor Sara Saberi put forward the motion to scrap the project as it will impinge upon the Cannington Claypan, a conservation category wetland and a Threatened Ecological Community (TEC), listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 as either endangered or critically endangered.
While city officers contend the proposed road will only impact two per cent – 280 square metres – of the TEC, with the road going through vegetation described by city reports as “degraded” and “completely degraded”, the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to prepare a report on the issue.
At the City of Canning’s ordinary council meeting on November 16, councillors elected to debate the continuation of the project, which has already cost the city approximately $150,000, at the first council meeting following the receipt of the EPA report.
However that could be in the distant future, with a spokesperson for the EPA confirming the state government agency is in the process of considering whether or not the proposal should be assessed, and if assessed, the level of assessment.
