City call to trial pedestrian only Oxford Street and add more upgrades to Leederville Oval in five-year vision

Plans are afoot for a pedestrian friendly Oxford Street after the City of Vincent has backed a new five-year vision for the Leederville town centre precinct. Councillors voted unanimously in support of the precinct plans at their most recent meeting on Tuesday night before council goes into caretaker mode ahead of elections. The area covered by the plan, which will now go out for further community consultation, includes the town centre along the western end of Newcastle Street and along Oxford Street, as well as the Leederville Village Square. The plan states that purpose of this draft Leederville town centre precinct plan is to provide a five-year action plan to “improve the public realm” in “alignment with the communities needs and aspirations”. The plan will “closely link” to other ongoing major town projects such as the Leederville carpark redevelopment. Earlier community consultation sessions had identified concerns around the town centre such as outdated public open spaces, underutilised events due to poor design, poor access to the train station, limited connectivity to other town centres, ineffective parking management, and safety for cyclists and pedestrians along major roads. The new plan proposes a trial of a pedestrian friendly Oxford Street that would transform the popular strip. Other features of the plan include upgrades to Leederville Oval, development of a Leederville Oval civic masterplan to increase community use, upgrades to Oxford Street Reserve to better utilise the “underperforming” park, activation of laneways and upgrades to the Water Corporation’s main drain corridor. The existing Leederville town centre place plan (2021-2025) is in its final year and the new vision will extend to 2030. The Place Plan currently has 28 actions, and the previous plan addressed almost half of these. Some of these items will continue with the new plan. The previous town centre plan was responsible for beautification of Electric Lane, a town centre lighting audit, the smoke-free town centre project, and a review of the use of the Leederville Village Square. Key constraints noted by the previous findings included car-dominated major corridors which limit walkability, economic volatility, rising property prices, housing affordability concerns and ageing infrastructure. The central theme of the plan was drawn through these findings. “Facilitate increased density and economic activity while protecting Leederville’s character, diversity, and local identity,” the report states. “Enhancing access to high-quality public open spaces and improving transport connectivity will be key enablers of this balance.” Each year city, staff will complete a review on the status of each of the actions proposed in the plan. The approved plans will now go out for community consultation.