KALAMUNDA council has delayed the demolition of four community facilities after concerns were raised about consultation and information used to justify removal.

The Canning Road skate park, Kostera Oval kiosk, Forrestfield scout hall and Edinburgh Road centre were among five assets nominated for rationalisation and demolition at the City of Kalamunda’s August ordinary council meeting.

The officer recommendation wasn’t moved and lapsed before councillors unanimously backed an alternate motion from councillor David Modolo to defer consideration of the four sites.

The demolition of an administration building store and toilet block was approved.

Cr Modolo said he supported the principle of asset rationalisation given the city’s ageing buildings, maintenance and renewal obligations and limited resources.

“We can’t simply keep every asset forever because it’s always been there,” he said.

“That’s why the alternate motion still allows for the demolition of the admin building store and toilet block.

“(The block and building) doesn’t have any community use. It’s surplus to needs and it’s in a very poor condition but I am asking council to defer the other four.

“Demolition is irreversible and I don’t think we yet have a sufficiently consistent process or enough information to make that irreversible decision.”

Cr Modolo said community consultation was particularly important and feedback he received after posting about the proposed demolitions on social media ran contrary to staff reports on how frequently certain facilities were used.

The City of Kalamunda staff report recorded only three sightings of users across more than 180 patrols at randomly selected times of the day including weekends.

Cr Modolo said a coffee van operator told him he was at the location six days a week and saw people using the skate park “practically every day”.

He also said residents in Forrestfield and High Wycombe had not been given the same opportunity through his social media post to comment on the proposed demolition of Forrestfield scout hall and Edinburgh Road centre.

“We’re not in a super rush here,” he said.

“Let’s get a bit more info and then let’s make the decision under sound information.”

Cr Josh Clark supported the alternate motion and said the city did have too many buildings and rationalisation should happen but the order things were done in was important too.

“Looking at the report, we have 230 buildings to a population of 64,000 so, that’s one for every 278 people,” he said.

“We’re not arguing that rationalisation shouldn’t happen (as) it absolutely should.

“I just want to make sure we’re doing things in the right order.”

During debate, councillor Sue Bilich asked whether delaying demolition could create a liability if someone was injured at the Canning Road skate park.

Ciy of Kalamunda staff said assets were subject to scheduled inspections and anything considered immediately unsafe was dealt with.

City of Kalamunda chief executive Anthony Vuleta said access would be restricted if the risk became too high.

“If we feel the risk is too high, we will do what we need to do to actually rope the area off,” he said.

“If we feel it’s reasonable and appropriate, we will leave it as it is. So, it’ll depend on the condition of it at that particular point in time.