City of Wanneroo seeks to benefit from campaign for Federal funds

Growth Areas Perth and Peel (GAPP) Deputy Chair, City of Wanneroo’s Mayor Tracey Roberts was an integral part of the launch.

“Families living in many of Perth’s outer suburbs are sometimes unable to take part in active recreation as the opportunities to do so aren’t geographically within reach,” Mayor Roberts said, who is also Deputy Chair of National Growth Alliance (NGA), and Deputy President of the WA Local Government Association (WALGA), said

“For many, the commute to access a quality sporting complex is simply just too far,” she said.

A community fair share of Federal funding will be used to build 10-12 sporting precincts throughout Perth’s outer Metropolitan suburbs in the coming years, three of which would be in the City of Wanneroo.

GAPP is proposing that the Federal Government allocate $350 million into a special purpose account, which would leverage a complementary investment of up to $700 million from State Government, Local Government and developer contribution schemes.

Federal funding needs to be granted, with a total of $41.5m going towards the development or upgrades of sporting precincts within the City of Wanneroo; Butler North District Open Space ($5m), Alkimos Regional Open Space ($30m) and Kingsway Regional Sporting Complex ($6.5m).

“In Western Australia, over 60% of people are overweight or obese, with less than half of the population participating in regular exercise,” Mayor Roberts said.

“We see these numbers increasing in the outer Metropolitan regions,” she said.

“Residents across Perth, including those in the outer suburbs deserve the opportunity to access recreational activities that connect them with their community and physical activity.

“GAPP understands what needs to be done to drive positive results for community health and wellbeing, but with such rapid growth in the outer suburbs, Federal funding is essential to ensure all residents get the opportunity to engage with their community and live healthier, more active lives.”

According to Wanneroo City Soccer Club President Dean Bell, securing Federal funding is pivotal to ensuring communities in Perth’s outer suburbs can continue to enjoy and participate in safe and high quality team sports.

“Securing Federal funding would be transformational for many active clubs in the suburbs,” Mr Bell said.

“For our club, funds would go directly toward upgrading facilities used daily by club members,” he said.

“In particular we would upgrade the women’s change rooms, providing female club members with their very own fit-for-purpose facilities to use during training and on game days”.

Growth Areas Perth and Peel (GAPP) is a group of nine outer Metropolitan Councils who are advocating for more public open space and regional sporting facilities. Councils include the City of Wanneroo, City of Armadale, City of Canning, City of Cockburn, City of Gosnells, City of Kalamunda, City of Rockingham, Shire of Serpentine – Jarrahdale and the City of Swan.