newsletters

We received the Dalkeith Redevelopment mail-out from the City of Nedlands on Christmas Eve. Attempts to download information from www.nedlands.wa.gov.au were frustrating, as even with ADSL2 it took a very long time for each of the three documents. Then a phone-call to Council offices revealed that everything was closed down for the holidays. A phone call today, the first day Council staff were back on duty, revealed that the person to whom enquiries should be directed, Craig Shepherd, would not be available until 9th January. This leaves only a five week window for informed public comment to occur, so, to be fair, we request a one month extension to 15th March 2008.

Our concerns with the proposals are as follows:-

Development to five stories on both sides of Waratah Avenue will create an unpleasant wind-tunnel. This is a certainty, the only room for scientific conjecture is to what degree wind speeds will increase. Our suggestion is:- why not limit development changes to the north side of Waratah Avenue?
We fear Waratah Avenue will look like Subi Centro. Why destroy our present unique village atmosphere? We have committed a lot of money to Dalkeith in ownership of two properties here because we value the amenity of country-style living within the city. We appreciate decent sized housing blocks, grass, trees, birds and low population density. We like Dalkeith’s ease of living and convenience of parking right in front of the bakery, the newsagency, the supermarket etc.
In-fill development appears to be being imposed at the behest of the State Govt. and commercial land-owners who don’t live in Dalkeith. Demand for higher intensity development is not coming from the people who live here. Nothing should change until residents understand and support such change. It is morally wrong for outsiders to destroy what is good about the Dalkeith service precinct in the cause of an ideology that says ‘Urban Sprawl Bad’, ‘In-fill Good’. We understand there are studies which demonstrate that there are no savings in infrastructure costs for In-fill relative to suburb expansion over low-cost land on the city fringes. It is also morally wrong for outsiders to vandalise our community village centre just to line their own pockets.

Sincerely

Ken & Colleen Helsby
155 Adelma Road, Dalkeith