With a serious commitment to attracting big business and a population boom on the cards, the Peel region is on the brink of significant change.
That change has spurred the City of Mandurah and Shire of Murray to work hand-in-hand to create a joint-growth plan for the region aimed at achieving a “shared economic future”.
At an official City of Mandurah strategy committee meeting in October, councillors adopted the new plan to grow the city’s economy and deliver tangible benefits for the broader region.
The plan, Mandurah and Murray: A Shared Economic Future, aims to improve the area’s socio-economic condition and ensuring its regional sustainability.
The plan is also a “living” document, which will evolve and develop according to changing objectives, priorities and opportunities.
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According to a report presented to the local government’s strategy committee, the plan came out of necessity.
From 2015 to 2017, the City of Mandurah and Shire of Murray endeavoured to participate in the WA Government’s Regional Centres Development Plan (RCDP).
However, following the March 2017 State Election, the new state government ended the RCDP, with no new plan created to replace it.
In January 2018, following a prolonged period of uncertainty, council empowered the City of Mandurah to write its own economic plan.
In doing so, council approved $150,000 of funding that was already contained within the City’s Economic Development budget to consolidate planning.
The highly anticipated Peel Business Park, an innovative agricultural business hub and sustainable industrial zone, has been tipped to get their economic wheels in motion.
Once fully developed, the park is expected to create around 2000 jobs and inject around $1 billion into the economy per annum.
Both local governments will work together to secure big business in the park.
The park will provide a location to accommodate general and light industry, as well as large format commercial industries growth for the Peel and Southern Metropolitan regions.
In recent weeks, Canning MP Andrew Hastie announced the federal government would invest $21.75 million into the establishment of the Peel Business Park and the Peel Agri-Innovation Precinct.
Led by East Ward councillor Lynn Rodgers and seconded by mayor Rhys Williams, elected members voted unanimously in favour of the plan when the document was tabled for adoption in council chambers.
The partnership to create this “shared vision” had been in the works for the past four years, according to the report.
However, simply adopting the document won’t be the end for the plan.
Council also voted to commit to a program of advocacy that aims to ensure state and federal government support and investment in the projects resulting from the document.
For more information visit the City of Mandurah or Shire of Murray websites.
Follow Caitlyn Rintoul on Twitter via @caitlynrintoul.