A LOCAL heritage group is crossing its fingers that Stirling city council keeps the suburb of Mt Lawley in the looming council amalgamations.

The Mt Lawley Society says Stirling’s head and shoulders above surrounding councils when it comes to preserving heritage, and is backing the city’s call for its boundaries to stay the same.

Intact

MLS president Bruce Wooldridge said Stirling had mostly kept the 1900s-1950s building stock intact in Mt Lawley and surrounding suburbs Inglewood and Menora.

“Stirling has adopted the approach of classifying Inglewood, Mt Lawley and Menora as heritage protection areas which ensures heritage character is retained,” he says.

“It is unfortunate that it has not been replicated by other councils with heritage suburbs.

Rampant

He said Vincent and Bayswater had let development run rampant in the parts of Mt Lawley under their control and many historic properties had been lost.

At a meeting between local government minister Tony Simpson and WA mayors last week, Mr Simpson said the government would release its preferred model for reform in about two months.

However, any boundary changes would not be finalised until well after the October state elections and could take up to two years to implement.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK