FAQ

Public open space (POS) describes land that is freely accessible by the community, for a variety of purposes.

We have a number of public open spaces, including but not limited to: parks, reserves, sporting grounds, bushland and special purpose spaces such as Memorial Gardens.

The purpose of open space is to encourage a range of activities including walking, cycling, dog walking, social activities, informal sporting activity, play spaces, structured sport, bushland and events.

The most common use of POS is for recreational purposes, whether that be for active use, such as sport, informal play or events or more passive activities like walking, picnics or bird watching. POS can also be used to house community buildings or for other community purposes like bushland conservation and stormwater drainage.

The purpose of the Public Open Space Strategy is to provide strategic direction and a framework to guide the management of open space.

The Town's population is forecast to double by 2050, with our boundaries to remain the same. Our public open spaces will be more utilised, and more important than ever as we move towards nodes of medium and high density housing.

A strategy will help us manage where, when and how public space is made available to the community.

It involves assessing the existing public open space network, current use issues and limitations and understanding community values. It includes planning ahead for the provision and design of public open space to meet the needs of our growing community to assist us to deliver a cohesive, linked and well-managed system that meet a range of current and future needs.

Key considerations include:

• Ensuring equitable access to open space for residents, workers and visitors to the Town.
• Meeting often-competing community demands for public open space.
• The importance public open space plays in urban environments to sustain and improve both mental and physical health and well-being and provide opportunities for social interaction and cohesion.
• Perth's growing population and the impact of increasing density and demographic changes in the Town of Victoria Park
• The impacts of climate change, urban heat island effect and extreme weather conditions as well as resilience and adaptation strategies to mitigate their effects.
• It is expected that a Public Open Space Strategy will provide recommendations and guidance on:
• Addressing gaps in access to open space and in provision for particular types and functions of public open space.
• Levels of maintenance, servicing and infrastructure (weighing up likely usage and potential costs to the rate payer).
• Funding mechanisms for future public open space works.
• Prioritising public open space works across the municipality.

in 2018 we asked our community how they wanted to be engaged. Feedback received during this stage informed our engagement plan. 

We will be engaging our community in three stages:

1. Broad community consultation promoted to all Town community members with options for online and face-to-face engagement at pop-up events.
2. A community panel will be formed and will discuss in detail the findings to date and explore aspirations and opportunities.
3. Broad community consultation promoted to all Town community members seeking feedback on draft.

The community panel will be selected based on expressions of interest received in 2018 and a stratified sample of the community to match the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data for the Town’s population, using the following criteria:

There are a number of ways you can find out more information:

• Contact the project team on 08 9311 8111
• Visit the Administration building at 99 Shepperton Road, Victoria Park WA
• Read the FAQs