Burwood Parks Westinvest Projects

Burwood Council commissioned a multi-disciplinary team to prepare business cases on four park projects for Westinvest funding. The team was led by APP with HillPDA providing the economic assessment and cost benefit analysis.  Two projects included the creation of new parks while the other two includes significant upgrade of existing parks including the Enfield Aquatic Centre. The new parks include two or three new small parks in the North Burwood area which will experience significant population growth near the Metro West Station. The other park will be on the redevelopment of Council’s depot site in Endfield which is nearing the end of its economic life.

Our value add

The program for delivery was very tight to meet due dates for submission.  HillPDA pulled together considerable resources to research the broader social impacts of open spaces, sporting fields and aquatic centres. Where possible impacts were quantified into a cost benefit model that could then be used and modified for other projects. Some of the externalities that were quantified included health benefits from active recreation and travel, amenity benefits measured by uplift in residential property values and use benefits (opportunity cost of leisure time).

Project outcome

Burwood Local Government Area is one of the most deprived areas for open space and active recreation per head of population anywhere in NSW. These projects will go a long way to increasing both the quantity and quality of its open spaces.

Services:

• Financial appraisal
• Economic appraisal (cost benefit analysis)
• Risk assessment
• Business case

Client: Burwood Council
Project year: 2022

For more information, contact Adrian Hack, Principal