Last night Council voted not to support the creation of the new suburb of ‘Meltham’ following extensive consultation with the community.
In September 2019, Council supported its community panel in initiating an amendment to its Town Planning Scheme for the Meltham surrounds area for an increase in housing density on the condition that its tree canopy is retained or enhanced.
Mayor Dan Bull said the amendment, that has since been approved by Council, related to an area of up to 700m from the train station.
“In discussing the amendment, the community panel (of 26 members) also made recommendations to Council regarding possible improvements to their suburb.
“One of the recommendations put forward by the panel was to give the area surrounding Meltham Train Station its own suburb name. Some locals already refer to this area as Meltham so it was suggested that this be formally recognised.
“The proposed new suburb of Meltham would have predominantly included sections of the suburb of Bayswater in addition to small portions of Maylands and Bedford.
“The City undertook consultation to gauge community support for the creation of the new suburb and gain feedback on how its boundaries should be defined between 20 February and 2 April.
“As part of the consultation, the City wrote to landowners, residents and businesses within the proposed suburb boundary and 200m beyond, asking them if they supported the renaming. A survey on the topic was also promoted on the City’s Facebook page, in the local paper and at local shops and libraries.
“We received 527 submissions on the proposed name change; indicating a high level of engagement on the topic.
“54% of respondents were opposed to the name change while 38% supported it. A further 8% supported the creation of a new suburb but wanted further changes to the suburb boundary or suburb name.
“I think what is really important here is that we listened to the recommendations of community panel and followed through by testing them with the rest of the community; this is democracy at work. The whole process was led by the community.
“In this instance there clearly wasn’t overwhelming support for a name change and on that basis Council resolved not to proceed. I would like to thank all those who participated in the consultation.