Media Release | Public Open Space (POS) and Verge Presentation |

Public Open Space (POS) and Verge Presentation Presentation of POS (parks, gardens) and verges in the Shire of Capel have been impacted by a range of challenges in the transition from winter to spring / summer. Weed spraying / removal and park’s maintenance program currently about 3 to 4 weeks behind schedule. Issues with the Automated Irrigation (Watering) System in Dalyellup are being investigated and fixed.

Weed Program

A winter of delayed rainfall and the transition through spring and into summer, has presented challenges for the Shire of Capel’s weeding and park’s maintenance programs.

Important safety and staff / public wellbeing matters needed to be resolved that saw a suspension of the Shire’s weed spraying program during late September and early October. Following a resumption of the spraying program in mid-October, our priority was focused on school oval spraying during the school holidays (in the absence of students and teachers).

The Shire’s gardens & broadleaf area (larger parks) spraying, weed removal and verge slashing program has now resumed and is expected to catch up over the coming weeks.

POS Watering and Irrigation

The restart of the Dalyellup Irrigation and Watering System in preparation of the coming warmer months has identified a number of faults within the automated reticulation (watering) system.

For the next few weeks, some parks and oval areas will see a yellowing or ‘drying off’ and a loss of green colour. Full recovery of all lawned areas is expected to occur quickly once the irrigation is repaired.

Shire staff and contractors are currently tracing and identifying all faults in irrigation cabling and joints, much of which was originally installed almost twenty years ago. Community members are asked to be aware of multiple areas being excavated and to stay clear of bunting / cordoned off areas.

Our team is confident that the irrigation to the middle and western ends of the Estate, west from Norton Promenade and Maidment Roundabout will be up and running by the end of this week.

Once operational, remediation of these areas should only take a week or two.

Community members will notice that some areas in the east of the Dalyellup Estate, particularly Ferndale Park may look yellow and dry for a little longer, due to scale of the cabling repairs required in this area.

Shire staff will be running the watering systems manually in this area throughout the day in the coming weeks, checking for faults and ensuring that repairs have been effective.

Shire President Doug Kitchen said, “We recognise that we have faced some challenges across the District this year with our maintenance programs. Difficulty in the employment market, staff / public safety and wellbeing improvements with our weed spraying program and faults in the Dalyellup irrigation system have meant our public open spaces and verges are not being presented to the standard we would like, and that the community expects.

We understand this has caused angst and frustration in our community. We are working to have these issues resolved as soon as possible in the lead-up to Christmas and Bushfire season.

Shire staff and contractors are working to catch up with our maintenance program and to rectify the issues as soon as possible.”

The easiest way to report any particular areas of concern is by emailing [email protected] with location and photos of the area if possible.

Gordon MacMile

Chief Executive Officer