Background

Yes, we're talking verges and we want your input. Lawns, street trees, turf, gardens, water efficiency and the rest.

Our street verges can offer many benefits to the community and our environment - from cooling the air around our homes, to providing shelter and habitat provision for wildlife protection and creating a sense of pride via improved public amenity - all of which help increase or maintain property values.

Verges are defined as a portion of Crown land that lies between the edge of a road and the adjacent property line. However residents in the City of Cockburn are encouraged to take "ownership" of their verges to beautify, maintain and improve.

Did you know that the City has a Street Verge Improvements Policy 2017 and supporting verge guidelines: Developing Your Verge: Guidelines for Good Design?

These documents provide advice and direction for residents about how to care for and enhance verges so that they contribute to a greener, cooler and more waterwise city. As well as supporting the City’s Urban Forest Strategy, the policy provides direction on safety and accessibility within the streetscape.

The City is now reviewing and updating this policy to provide further advice and direction to residents, particularly residents in new developments who may be unsure about what they can do and how to go about making improvements. The review includes an analysis of best practice initiatives in other councils.

To ensure that the policy continues to provide practical best practice guidance in line with community expectations it is critical that residents are given the opportunity to provide input into this review. The information received from this feedback process will be added to the research findings and used to inform the revised policy.

Workshop

Thankyou to the 80 people who attended the discussion on 20 February 2019 at the Cockburn Bowling and Recreation Centre where Gardening Australia's Dr Josh Byrne and forest pathologist Dr Paul Barber shared their expertise and thoughts.

Have Your Say

Share your ideas below by Friday 1 March 2019.

• Post a question or add your comment below
• Send an email to Community Engagement Officer at [email protected]