The City of Armadale has a big wish list heading into next year’s state election if it’s recently endorsed advocacy strategy is anything to go by.
Councillors endorsed the strategy at their October 24 meeting.
It outlines what projects the city should push for funding.
High on the city’s transport agenda are the Armadale North Lake Road Bridge over the Kwinana Freeway to compliment the impending Armadale Road widening and the Byford train line extension.
The city will also advocate for the extension of the Tonkin Highway to Mundijong Road.
Armadale mayor Henry Zelones said the projects were key for the future activation and growth of Armadale as the strategic metropolitan centre to serve the southern south east corridor.
“The transport elements are particularly relevant as these relate to the movement of residents and to a lesser degree the movement of goods and services in the region, which serves as a major driver for the economic development of the area,” he said.
The justice precinct and complex was also high on the city’s agenda.
“The city is advocating for the construction of the justice complex to meet the needs of the community and envisages the current Armadale Courthouse site being available for redevelopment by June 2020,” Mr Zelones said.
The strategy also calls for improved health services and more government departments in the area.
“The city is of the view that the Armadale Kelmscott Health Campus is a priority for retention of service to the region, and will be promoting this stance to all key decision makers,” Mr Zelones said.
“As the major regional hospital in the south east corridor, any upgrades, funding, or additional beds that can be provided are considered to be extremely beneficial to the region in general, and to the city’s residents in particular.
“The city would like to further the importance and relevance of Armadale as a regional centre, through the decentralisation of State Government operations.”
A higher education facility within the city was also a priority.
Mr Zelones said the youth sector in particular have to commute for almost all tertiary education needs.
Denny Ave left out
Fixing traffic and congestion issues on Denny Avenue in Kelmscott has not rated as a City of Armadale priority in its recently endorsed advocacy strategy report.
The strategy calls for the state government to fund three major transport projects but, despite intensified public outcry over traffic issues for the past 18 months, Denny Avenue missed the cut.
Armadale Mayor Henry Zelones defended the lack of mention and said the city was working with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority as the Planning Authority for the area regarding the upgrade of the Kelmscott CBD and surrounds.
He said Denny Avenue was a major infrastructure element of that.
“The MRA is in the process of performing traffic modelling of the area and surrounding connector roads, in order to determine the current traffic patterns and to gauge what impact any change to the road infrastructure would have on these existing patterns,” he said.
“This modelling exercise will assist in identifying the benefits of any improvements, and will guide decisions regarding funding alternatives and implementation.
Only once the modelling has been completed and the full impacts of the results analysed, can any decisions and proposals be considered.”
Member for Armadale Tony Buti said he is looking at a number of measures including congestion, delays and crashes.
The 175 metre stretch of road has experienced 168 crashes in the five years to December 2015.
