Environment Minister Bill Marmion announced that he had accepted seven of eight recommendations in a committee report from April, which investigated the significance and environmental impact of a number of shack sites across WA, including 178 shacks at Naval Base.

The report recommended that shack managers conduct a review of sites to determine who was occupying them and immediately remove any shacks that were abandoned or had a lapsed lease.

Cockburn planning and development director Daniel Arndt said the City was undertaking a review of the Naval Base shacks to ensure that each was being occupied by the owner or another person permitted to use it, and was developing a strategy for dealing with lapsed licence sites.

He said another recommendation to ban any new shacks from being erected did not apply to the Naval Base site, because it was managed by the City and not by the State Government.

“The City is currently finalising a revised lease document for the shack sites. This has been prepared in consultation with the Naval Base Holiday Accommodation Community Reference Group.

“It is anticipated that the draft lease will be released for consultation with the leaseholders in the next few months.”

However, the draft strategy was unlikely to be finalised until early next year.

The committee’s report found that there were significant differences between shack sites throughout WA and it recommended that decisions regarding particular shack sites should reflect the circumstances relevant to each site.

Link to online article - Community Newspaper