Donovan MacDonald

West Ward

Q1. What are your top priorities if elected to the City of Bayswater council?

Small business support and priority over big business developments. The city needs to prioritize small business that brings vibrancy to the city, Vs only the major precent developments. Cafes, yoga studios, arts, etc. Penalize long term vacancies and push for activation.

Sensible development only and not at the expense of local services. Push back against Development WA to have a say in what is approved. As the upkeep of the sites will return to city of Bayswater along with the costs.

Q2. What will you do to enable more walking and cycling in the City of Bayswater?

Reduce speed on many non major streets. Dedicated bike lanes on side streets connecting the train bike path with the river. New developments should cater to this where possible.

Q3. What will you do to increase the City of Bayswater's tree canopy?

Increase tree minimums for new developments. Push for sunken power where possible. Both my house and shop can only have dwarf gums due to power lines and had to prune aggressively. DA consideration for trees of a certain size and species. And most of all, look after trees planted already, not just in lot clearing but the new trees planted by city in many areas are totally dead after last summer, watering schedule was not sufficient in their early planting. Prioritising urban heat maps showing weak areas of the city.

Riverside Urban Forest project could not be a better project. How it could be improved further I'm open to learning. Stage 2 is facing funding challenges, but I am not fully across the numbers.

Q4. What will you do to help our community reduce emissions and support a move to renewable energy?

I'd consider drastic options such as rates savings for owners who install solar on commercial properties. For example I was not approved by my building owners to install a system that would have taken me off grid, and reduced 35k electricity annually.

How can the city push for mandatory solar across all properties! For example city of Freo gives rate reductions for water wise gardens and solar uptake.

Also the civic Centre only utilizes 1/3 roof space on solar. We could lead by example.