Changes to City wards to take effect in October

The City of Armadale completed a review of its ward representation boundaries earlier this year with the new ward boundaries to take effect from the next ordinary Council elections, on 21 October 2017.

City of Armadale Mayor Henry Zelones OAM, JP said local governments with ward representation are required to review the ward boundaries, and offices of councillor for each ward, regularly.

“A ward review requires us to evaluate the geography and topography of wards, community identity, demographic trends, economic factors and the ratio of councillors to electors.

“Because we are growing at such a rapid pace, we need to update our Ward boundaries quite regularly to ensure the number of electors being represented by each councillor remains reasonably consistent.

“Several different representation models were considered by Council, including removing wards, reducing the number of councillors, and having some larger and some smaller wards with different numbers of councillors proportionate to the size of the ward.

“The preferred option was that the current seven (7) ward representation model be retained, but with modified boundaries; the current number of councillors (14) be retained; and the Jarrah and Neerigen wards be renamed to Hills and Ranford wards respectively.

“This was advertised for public comment, with three submissions made. After review of the submissions that option was then recommended to the Local Government Advisory Board.

“Neerigen was renamed Ranford, referencing the major northern boundary road of the newly created ward. For the historical enthusiasts - H S Ranford was the Chief Inspector of Surveys at the time of the formation of the Kelmscott Roads Board in 1895.

“Council also decided to change Jarrah Ward to Hills Ward, which reflects the topography and settlements throughout the hills area,” said Mayor Zelones.

The Local Government Advisory Board endorsed Council’s recommendation with both the Minister for Local Government and Governor approving the changes, which was then gazetted on 30 June 2017.

For further details of the ward representation review or the ward boundaries visit www.armadale.wa.gov.au/wards or call (08) 9394 5000 or email info@armadale.wa.gov.au.