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Environmental advocacy groups have called for a special electors’ meeting with the City of Melville over its contentious $4.7 million Leeming cricket pitch proposal.
Armed with a petition signed by 650 residents, Bull Creek Leeming Community Action Group convenor Jason Meotti and Melville Tree Canopy Advocates convenor Esther Cole submitted the meeting request with the city on Tuesday morning.
“We’ve called for a special meeting of electors, and we’ve asked for that to be done before the June meeting because we want to see this motion that was passed in April rescinded, and we want it just sent back into the normal planning process,” Meotti said.
“Send it back for proper community consultation, a proper needs analysis … then a pre-feasibility and feasibility study, like what’s happening with the Leeming Rec Centre [proposal].
“We’re in a cost of living crisis … and I’m calling it Australia’s most expensive lawn because that’s effectively what we’re going to get, [spending] $4.7 million for … a well-lit lawn.”
In April, Melville councillors gave the green light to clear more than half a hectare of remnant native bushland in Leeming to make way for a new cricket pitch despite stiff community pushback.
The plan to expand the cricket pitch at John Connell Reserve was part of an election commitment from federal Tangney MP Sam Lim in 2022, and would see bushland cleared to the east of the reserve, which sits to the north of Roe Highway and the Jandakot Airport precinct in Perth’s south.
The new pitch would be built to be used by the Leeming Spartans Cricket Club, with the expanded grounds to also be utilised by the Leeming Strikers Soccer Club.
In response to the council’s decision, local advocacy groups began doorknocking across throughout May to gather signatures for the petition to call a special electors’ meeting.
Meotti claimed Leeming residents had “no idea” the proposal would involve clearing native bushland to accommodate the new cricket pitch.
“We’ve had door knockers go to people, and they had no idea this was even happening. They know about John Connell, and they know there’s an old tip in there, but they have no idea about this proposal,” he said.
“And then we explain that it’s going to destroy remnant bushland. It’s going to cost at least $4.7 million, and $1.3 million of that is for the offset planting.”
In 2025, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation approved a permit that would allow the cricket club to clear up to 0.68ha of native vegetation.
To combat the 200-plus trees that would be removed, the permit enforced offset planting at Ken Hurst Park which would include 30,000 trees planted over four years and is anticipated to cost the city $1.3 million.
But Meotti and Cole both feared the revegetation process would take far too long to positively impact wildlife affected by the proposed clearing.
“It’s like the council coming to you, and you’ve got a house in a shopping centre, you’ve got all the food you need, you’ve got accommodation, everything you need,” Meotti.
“Then the council comes along and says, ‘Look, we want to do something with this bit of land here, so we’re going to bulldoze all the shops and your house’,” he said.
“But over the highway, we’re going to build seven more houses and a seven times bigger shopping centre, but that’s not going to be ready for 10 years.
“So where do the birds go for 10 years? It’s like booking into an Airbnb and ordering Uber Eats. It just does not stack up.”
Meotti said if the city were to do the offset planting before the clearing, it would be more appealing to residents.
But ultimately, the ideal world for the advocacy groups was to follow the John Connell Master Plan, which has been in the works since 2021.
“The plan actually looked at a wide variety of sports, so not only sports with clubs, and would actually build what the community wants,” Cole said.
“This council is very reluctant to protect trees on private land, so the only place they’ve got is public land, and they can’t even do that.
“When they’ve got the ability to do other things, they’ve gone first to clearing the trees, that should be the last result.”
At its April ordinary council meeting, the city aimed to seek out federal and state funding for the project, but ultimately decided that its future won’t hinge on it coming through.
However, residential rates could rise by 5 per cent in 2026-27, which some councillors said was as a result of the unbudgeted project.
At the city’s May 12 special meeting, councillors voted 10-2 to advertise its intention to increase residential rates by 5 per cent. The finalised annual budget will be presented to council for adoption at its meeting on June 16.
Meotti said he was worried the council might ignore the request to rescind its support to clear the bushland.
“Our genuine concern, is that they’re just going to override it, but look, I think this is now on the radar of the local government inspector and I think they need to be very, very careful with how they approach this process, because there is a microscope on them,” he said.
The City of Melville and Leeming Spartan Cricket Club were approached for comment.
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