Should they stay or should they go: councils to reveal why they stayed with dwindling regional group

The City of Bayswater is poised to reveal why it stayed while other members left a regional council.

The Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council was formed in 1993 by the cities of Belmont, Bayswater, Swan and Kalamunda, the Shire of Mundaring and Town of Bassendean.

But at the start of this month its membership list dropped to two: Bayswater and Bassendean.

Belmont left the group in 2021 and Kalamunda in 2023.

Mundaring announced in April that because it was moving away from landfill and “potential financial exposure”, it would no longer be a member from July 1.

Its name was quietly removed from the EMRC’s website on that date, as was the City of Swan’s.

Bayswater held a confidential hearing about the EMRC in June and voted this month to release its decisions.

The council voted 6-3 i