Perth Voice Interactive

THE Mary Street Piazza trial is up and running, with a temporary public space on the corner of Beaufort Street open until August 8.

Beaufort Street’s long been in need of places to linger, with shoppers and diners passing through.

The council (and the Beaufort Street Network) is hoping it takes off to encourage people to be “Beaufort Street Loiterers”. It happened to be empty when our photographer dropped by, but it has attracted artists who’ve been painting the street, buskers have been enticed there and even a yoga event was down there on Wednesday.

The germ of the idea was first planted by Dudley Maier in 2011, but he was voted down, only getting support from Cr John Pintabona and fellow council-retiree Warren McGrath.

It was revived under new place manager David Doy, winning unanimous support to get off the ground for a trial.

If you want to weigh in on the idea you can head down to the corner before August 8, and there’s a community forum there on August 2 at 10am.