Perth Voice Interactive

The Mt Lawley Society is planning a town hall-style meeting to protest Colin Barnett’s plan to merge Mt Lawley into Bayswater.

Astor Theatre owner Bruce Zimmerman has offered his theatre, free of charge, for the event.

“I want the council boundaries to stay the same,” he says. “This is an important issue for the community and I want to help them out.”

The vast majority of Mt Lawley and all of Inglewood will shift from Stirling and Vincent into a merged Bayswater-Bassendean super-council.

Last year Stirling council won an award for outstanding heritage practices by a local government and the council had established heritage protection areas in Mt Lawley, Menora and Inglewood.

Aghast society president Bruce Wooldridge says heritage is the big loser.

“It is not a coincidence that Mt Lawley has the best-preserved federation era housing in Australia, as it takes a willingness and ongoing commitment by council to ensure that this is achieved,” he said. “The local community has not been listened to. It continues to be our—and the overwhelming majority of local residents— preferred option that there be no change in local government boundaries for Mount Lawley, Inglewood and Menora.”

Meanwhile, Perth Liberal MP Eleni Evangel says now’s not the time to be talking about whether she’ll cross the floor on a bill to stop locals having the power to stop mergers.

She wants all of Vincent in Perth instead of being split and says her efforts are best spent trying to convince the premier it’s the better option.

“I’m working within the boundaries of my government to ensure we get the outcome we want,” she says.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK