FREMANTLE city council is accused of delaying a bid to reclassify the Esplanade as an A-class reserve to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of its skate park proposal.

Former deputy mayor John Dowson—who is leading an inner-city residents’ campaign against the $1.2 million project—says if the reserve is reclassified from C to A-class, any excision for the skate park will require approval from both houses of state parliament.

This explains why the council has been dragging its heels since at least February, he believes.

Council staff told the WA regional development and lands department in February they would prepare a submission for the March council meeting. That never happened.

On April 19,  RDL assistant state lands officer Kylie Binks wrote to council CEO Graeme Mackenzie saying she would start the reclassification process once she received confirmation “the City of Fremantle is supportive”.

It has now emerged that neither the submission nor Ms Binks’ letter were presented to council.

Mayor Brad Pettitt says reclassification simply isn’t a priority, “for the reason that it makes little practical difference to the preservation of the reserve, and no difference to the Esplanade youth plaza proposal”.

He says the submission and Ms Binks’ letter will be presented to the June meeting.

Mr Dowson and the Fremantle Inner-City Residents Association want a special electors’ meeting held to try to force the council into discussing resolutions passed at a 220-strong public meeting on April 23. “The community was never allowed to comment on the location of the skate plaza, a development which was clearly forbidden in the masterplan,” Mr Dowson says.

by CARMELO AMALFI