Colour and parking part of CBD plan

A plan to bring life back to Bunbury’s central business district will be decided on at tonight’s council meeting.

More colour, greenery, improved lighting and more parking on Blair Street all form part of the draft Bunbury City Centre Action Plan 2020.

The draft plan also includes better pedestrian access between the CBD and the Leschenault Inlet and modifications to the roundabout near Bunbury Visitors Centre to improve traffic flow.

Half a million dollars has been budgeted for the plan including a proposed $230,000 for a lighting project, $50,000 to make the city greener and $220,000 for a detailed road design.

The draft plan is the result of research conducted to identify the CBD’s main challenges and short and long-term outcomes to attract locals and tourists to the CBD.

Mayor Gary Brennan said he was confident the plan would make a difference to the CBD and was hopeful councillors would tonight tick off on the plan.

“Bunbury is a complete city, we’ve got everything here that Perth has, we’ve just got it on a smaller scale,” Mr Brennan said.

“What I hear is that people who haven’t been here for a while, when they come in they’re really amazed at how much Bunbury has changed and they love it.

“We want more people to have that experience … Bunbury is a great place to base yourself and explore the Ferguson Valley and explore the wine region.”

Mr Brennan is hopeful that plans will combat the City’s biggest challenge – being placed on a peninsular.

He said plans to improve car access to the CBD would complement the recently upgraded Koombana Drive.

The next stage includes improvements to Casuarina Drive and modifications to Blair Street.

“I suspect we might be looking at narrowing a section of Blair Street to two lanes, we won’t lose the width but we’ll make it two lanes and then use car parking,” Mr Brennan said.

He hoped the plan would help inner city businesses, particularly retail businesses, but said the general economy needed to lift.

“The city will do what it can to further activate the CBD ... we should never become complacent,” he said.