Annual Report 2015-2016 - Highlights

Fund our Future

The City participated in its first major advocacy campaign ‘Fund Our Future’ through the National Growth Areas Alliance. The City’s campaign focussed on seeking commitment by the Federal Government to develop a fund to support outer metropolitan growth councils to meet their growth challenges. This national campaign, which supported the community to make their voices heard in Canberra, was a huge success. The City of Wanneroo was the most proactive local authority throughout the campaign, engaging local residents and community spokespeople to champion the Fund our Future message, and generated the highest number of
emails (16,692) sent to politicians in the nation. Issues relating to outer metro Councils are receiving more coverage as a result but the dedicated fund unfortunately has not yet been established.

Road and rail was the focus of Fund our Future, in particular the continuation of the Mitchell Freeway to Romeo Road, Alkimos and the extension of the rail to Yanchep.

Tri-Cities (Wanneroo, Joondalup and Stirling)

A Tri-Cities Mayor and CEO visit to Canberra occurred in February 2016.

This provided the Cities of Wanneroo, Joondalup and Stirling with a golden opportunity to showcase the best of what our region has to offer, and to promote our key infrastructure projects to Federal Members of Parliament.

’Imagine yourself here’, was the theme of the showcase, with Mayor Tracey Roberts also highlighting the region’s potential as an attractive location for event tourism.

The delegation took the opportunity with this select audience to advocate for the City’s plans for the Neerabup Strategic Link, which is a key infrastructure project for our economic and regional development, and requires Federal Government funding and support.

The event was a great success, and is growing stronger and having more impact each year. Next year, the Tri-Cities will be hosted by the City of Wanneroo.

Connect Wanneroo

This campaign for the March 2017 State Government election has been designed to continue the advocacy work started through Fund our Future by working with the community to seek a commitment to extending the
Mitchell Freeway and building the rail link to Yanchep.

Visit the Connect Wanneroo website for more information.

Community Cabinet Meetings

The City hosted two high-level State Government meetings which allowed us to showcase our strengths and seek government support for important infrastructure projects.

The first meeting was the Shadow Cabinet which brought Opposition Leader Mark McGowan and his team to the Civic Centre.

The second, Community Cabinet, saw the City host WA Premier Colin Barnett and his Cabinet ministers.

At a community reception, the Premier extended his appreciation to the City for hosting Cabinet and for the quality of briefings provided. The Premier also commented on the positive and aspirational spirit of the northern suburbs which reflects on the positive contribution of all City employees to the community.

Charity Golf Day

In October 2015, the City’s Corporate Charity Golf Day raised nearly $40,000 for chaplaincy services at public secondary schools.

Twenty-three teams competed to raise money for YouthCARE which provides chaplaincy services at public secondary schools in the City.

YouthCARE offers social, emotional and spiritual support to thousands of students, staff and family members in Western Australian public school communities each year.

The highly successful event was held at Carramar Golf Course on 15 October and raised $38,150. This included $5,800 from the Staff Charity Golf Day at Marangaroo Gold Course. The City’s Corporate Charity Golf Day has been running since 2001 and in that time has raised more than $440,000. 

Wanneroo Agricultural Show

The City is a proud sponsor of the Wanneroo Agricultural Show, Western Australia’s largest regional show - which was held in November 2015 and once again was a huge success. The City’s close working relationship with the Agricultural Society dates back to the society’s inception.

The City’s marquee showcased cultural offerings from the Wanneroo Regional Museum and our libraries as well as important community safety initiatives.

Using online technology and our new pop-up library, residents had the opportunity to join our libraries on the spot and view the wide range of ebooks and magazines available to borrow.

Marquee visitors were also able to step back in time, viewing and playing with historic items from the museum’s secondary collection as well as games and puzzles from the past.

Merriwa Integrated Service Hub

In April 2016, Council endorsed a proposal to engage MercyCare as anchor tenant and backbone organisation
in the development of an integrated services hub in the vacant Merriwa Administration Building. The purpose of an integrated services hub is to provide a mechanism to facilitate collaborative and integrated service delivery between different community service entities across the region. 

Red25 Councils Blood Challenge

The goal of this challenge is to ensure that 25% of all of Australia’s blood donations are secured.

From March to June 2016, councils across the country gave a total of 3,839 donations, saving up to 11,500 lives. WA smashed the state target of 330 donations with an overall of 364 donations or 110% of the target.

The Tri-Cities Mayors joined forces for a blood donation challenge. The City of Wanneroo took out the top spot in the corporate challenge with 51 employee donations helping to save up to 153 lives.

The City‘s involvement in such challenges can make a big difference to our community. The Australian Red Cross Blood Service was grateful to all those who rolled up their sleeves for the cause.

Fit to Waist Away Program

As part of the City’s Health and Wellbeing program, external fitness provider Absolute Balance, in conjunction with Local Government Insurance Services, provided staff throughout the City with 12 weeks of exercise classes from April to June 2016.

The program, which included bootcamp/boxing and pilates was well-received by employees with one saying: “I just wanted to say thanks for the ‘Fit to Waist Away Program’ - this has been an excellent initiative”. A total of 185 employees took part, including 70 staff at Ashby Depot who attended the bootcamp/boxing class each week.

Prior to commencing the Fit to Waist Away program, each participant completed a confidential assessment, which was conducted again at the end of the 12-week program.

'Your Move' Wanneroo

‘Your Move’ was a Department of Transport and Department of Sport and Recreation program supported by the City of Wanneroo and RAC, and delivered from January 2015 – July 2016 with the assistance of HBF, North Metropolitan Health Service, Heart Foundation, Nature Play WA and Diabetes WA and Bicycling WA.

This free and personalised program provided information to support residents become more active, healthy and connected. Participants were encouraged to set a goal around physical activity and/or active transport and were provided support and resources to help them meet that goal.

Residents who signed up took advantage of tools such as active lifestyle phone-coaching, active transport maps and timetables tailored to the local area and a variety of local business vouchers, HBF fitness programs, community services and information.

Minor infrastructure upgrades were also provided such as bus information modules, bike parking stations, bike repair stations and Australia’s largest wayfinding network to promote active transport. 

Access and Inclusion Plan 2015/16 – 2018/19

The City of Wanneroo’s Access and Inclusion Plan identifies strategies which aim to improve access and inclusion within its vulnerable populations, including multicultural, disability and aged care priorities.

A consultation exercise conducted in 2015/16 highlighted the need to ensure access and inclusion requirements respond to the whole community by meeting priorities for marginalised population groups
including those with a disability and multicultural groups.

As a result of this, the focus of the revised plan is ‘access and inclusion’ rather than ‘disability access and inclusion’ and as such was renamed accordingly and endorsed by the Disability Service Commission.
The Access and Inclusion Plan demonstrates the City’s commitment to building an inclusive and accessible community that celebrates diversity and promotes the creation of quality places and services for all people to access and enjoy. The Access and Inclusion Plan remains compliant with the objectives of the Disability Services Act 1993 (amended 2004).

'Wannabeinspired?'

The City’s place-strengthening initiative ‘Wannabeinspired’ featured two events held in May and June 2016. These sessions were designed to inspire and motivate residents to take action on their ideas to turn where they live into a connected and engaged community.

The stand-out theme from when participants were asked: “What do you want your project to achieve?” was a resounding “We want our project to bring people together”, and “We want our community to be more connected”.

The City continues to support the local ideas that have come from this initiative and are looking forward to providing more forums such as these in the future. The next stage of the project is ‘Wannagetinvolved’ – a series of workshops where attendees can take the first steps towards developing their community project with
the City of Wanneroo on hand to help turn local ideas in to action. These workshops will take place in the 2016/17 financial year.

Draft Cycling Strategy and Plan

The only project approved by the Department of Transport as part of the 2014/15 Perth Bicycle Network Local Government Grant Program was the preparation of a new cycle plan for the City of Wanneroo.

Published in July 2015, ‘Cycle Wanneroo’ is intended to be a guiding document for the City in achieving its vision of making cycling an integral part of daily life in Wanneroo.