Morley has been identified by the State government as being a ‘Strategic Metropolitan Centre’. As a strategic metropolitan centre, the Morley activity centre is second only to the central Perth area and of equal importance to other major centres such as Fremantle, Joondalup, Midland and Mandurah. As such I think there should be a free Wi-Fi service.

I realise free Wi-Fi isn’t exactly a visionary concept anymore; it has become a pretty stock standard expectation. However currently there is no service like this in Morley, and I think there should be. At the last Council I submitted a motion for free Wi-Fi in Morley to be discussed and considered at the January 27th meeting:

Hopefully my motion will be supported and free Wi-Fi rolled out in Morley. Ultimately, if it is well received from the locals and shoppers then I will have a case to push for the Maylands town-site (and probably train station) to also receive free Wi-Fi. Beaufort Street in Mt Lawley & Inglewood, and Bassendean town-site might also be a good spots once they become part of the City of Bayswater. We shall see, first things first, and that is to get at least five other Councillors to support the motion for Morley Wi-Fi.

The cost of $25,000 is a concern for me; I am after all the guy who ran for council to reduce spending, not increase it. I have however done my research and believe this can be done for closer to $20,000, but am supportive of it going up to $25k, and this does include the first year’s internet costs which is a significant portion of the $25k. In addition I would hope that where we choose to strategically place the Wireless Access Points (WAP’s), which cover an immediate area, will have the support of the local businesses and some of them will either part-fund the WAP installation cost or fully fund that particular WAP’s ongoing ISP (internet) charges. Perhaps in return they could set the homepage to their website.  Anyway, these details are operational and must be handled by the CoB staff; by law a Councillors role is strategic and not operational. Strategically I think this will be good for the area, but am keen to know the views of the people I serve, so please feel free to leave a comment.

You should also be aware that the City has just released the Morley Structure Plan for public comment. There are some really exciting things planned for Morley, and if you want to find out more or make a public submission, you can do so here.

 Power to the people.

(Please be aware that these views are my own and have not been endorsed by the City of Bayswater)

*** As a follow up, the below is how the vote ultimately went at Council: ***

A comprehensive loss.