Melville residents could face a spike in their annual rates following the recent approval of a $4.68 million cricket pitch that was not in the city’s budget.
The council voted 10-2 after a heated debate at a special meeting last week to advertise its intention to increase residential rates by 5 per cent in 2026-27.
City officers had recommended a 5.5 per cent increase, which would add about $2.60 per week to the average residential rates bill, but the council voted against this 4-8.
A council report said the increase was needed to help pay for infrastructure supplies such as bitumen, asphalt and concrete. In previous years the city had either not increased rates or did not increase them enough to cover its costs.
The debate was punctuated by councillors interrupting each other to argue points of order and claims that last month’s approval for a $4.68 million cricket pitch at John Connell Reserve was to blame for the rates hike.
Director of corporate services Gary Tuffin told the meeting the city now had to find an additional $200,000 based on that decision, but that could be offset by a separate council decision not go ahead with another $695,000 project.
Cr Karen Wheatland said rates would need to increase to accommodate the unbudgeted John Connell Reserve project and avoid dipping into future reserve funding.
“We’ve recently made a decision of council to fund a project that was not listed in the long-term financial plan ... we’ve just seen the State Budget released last week and we have the Federal Budget released this evening ... there’s no splashes for cash for local governments outside of housing infrastructure,” she said.
“I think it’s really important that we go out with a figure that’s not going to impact on future decisions of community groups, sporting groups and infrastructure we need to maintain across the city. It’s not fair on our community, it’s not fair on our staff.
“If we dip into our reserves, it’s going to impact the future residents and ratepayers of the city.”
Cr Jennifer Spanbroek said the “incessant discussion” around the pitch project was irrelevant as it did not affect rates. Cr Wheatland called a point of order that this claim was “misleading”. “Mr Tuffin just said that $200,000 has to be factored into the budget,” she said.
Cr Wheatland then called another point of order as Cr Spanbroek continued to debate, again for being “misleading”. The two spoke over each other until mayor Katy Mair directed Cr Spanbroek to move on.
“I have asked you to (move on) and you’ve had two points of order on exactly the same thing. Please move on,” she said. Cr Spanbroek said she had not been treated fairly but opted to leave her remarks there.
Cr Glynis Barber said she wanted to see what the community thought of a 5.5 per cent rate increase. “I hope they consider the projects and services that we do provide, which is why 5.5 per cent would be outstanding,” she said. “However, I also recognise that is slightly higher than the CPI. Cost of living is a factor.”
Cr Matthew Woodall said he would be more comfortable with a 5 per cent increase. “Cost-of-living pressures are front and centre for everyone and for every level of government,” he said.
“I think keeping the proposed increase to 5 per cent is more defendable. It lessens the impact on ratepayers and it gives them some certainty to know that their council rates bill will not increase by more than 5 per cent, because we can’t set the increase higher than what we advertise.”
Cr Nicole Robbins described the 5.5 per cent increase as “out of touch.” “Residents are out there cutting costs, delaying bills and doing it tough. Yet tonight we’re considering sending them a bigger one,” she said.
“CPI is sitting at 4.9 per cent and we’re looking here at a rate increase of 5.5 per cent. Most residents I speak to can live with a rate increase at CPI, but they start to get frustrated and ask lots of questions when we say we’re going to increase it by more than that.
“I personally just can’t support continuing to slug our ratepayers for projects that I think are unjustifiable. Spending $60 million on a library and cultural centre, $4.68m on a cricket pitch and $9m on healing gardens is not the way we should be going.”
The city is also proposing an 8 per cent rates increase for vacant land to encourage faster development. The draft budget is open for comment until June 5 on the City of Melville website. The finalised 2026/27 annual budget will be presented to council for adoption at its meeting on June 16.
