A WOMAN waging an intense battle to prevent a housing development around Subiaco Oval says there are parallels with plans for Fremantle Oval, urging residents to fight the “sell-off” of heritage assets and open space.

Subiaco resident Mary McFarland, whose rocket to the WA Heritage Council earned a rebuke from chair Darren Foster that she’d overstepped the mark, says with the Cook government trumpeting the state’s strong economy, there was no need to be selling off valuable assets.

Ms McFarland said the outcry over plans to hire out cabins at Kings Park showed people were genuinely concerned about the privatisation of public spaces, but it was hard to get an organised opposition because often the groups were focused on issues in their own backyard.

“Once this land is sold and built on, it will be gone forever,” she says of Mueller Park next to Subiaco Oval where DevelopmentWA has plans for an extra 2900 new dwellings.

Ms McFarland said this came despite Subiaco already reaching the density targets set by the state government, and she warned Fremantle could end up in the same situation, with planners demanding more and more height and density.

She says DevelopmentWA has also breached its own rules in Subiaco by planning for  2900 homes, but leaving no space for a primary school as required by other developers with similar-sized projects.

by STEVE GRANT