Perth Voice Interactive

Less is more
IF people don’t like the seven-storey Bayswater building rejected recently (Voice, October 31, 2015), they might have to work for a halt to the rush to build more and more high-rise to house the ever-increasing population.
Because most of the new people wanting apartments are coming from overseas, I ask all people opposing this “development” to join Sustainable Population Australia.
You can find them at http://www.population.org.au
SPA policies would result in almost no need to demolish heritage houses for such monstrous buildings.
John C Massam,
Cobine Way, Greenwood

Practise what you Pride
HERE’S hoping the gay Pride itself does not practice discrimination again this year, and also ridicule another more “anti-gay” religion in its so-called demonstration against bias.
I know that if I was gay and needed help, there would be one religion I would turn to for assistance and one that I would never even dare to admit I was gay to, let alone ask for help.
So come on “gay pride” — either practice what you preach and don’t discriminate, or stop running scared and involve others with real anti-gay sentiments.
Larry Arrigoni
Loftus St, North Perth

A matter of time
DURING the past week, TV news carried a report of a large City of Bayswater tree that had shed a limb onto a car, nearly trapping its driver. He was lucky not to have been injured or even killed.
A previous incident involved a tree near the Maylands yacht club, when a large limb fell onto a parked car and nearly demolished it.
On this more recent occasion local people stated they had reported their concerns to the city, but apparently to little or no avail. All the city’s spokesperson could declare was the usual about tree assessments and about heeding the calls for action.
What was not challenged is the tree assessment process that is practised by the city, and I would urge those concerned citizens to do their own research into the matter.   They should ask to see the report about the tree in question. They need to research the actual tree assessment process the city’s employees use.
They might be surprised to discover it has its origins in Cheshire in the UK, a country not notable for its huge eucalypts nor trees that drop limbs without warning.
Then, they should then go to their local elected councillor(s) and urge them to bypass city officialdom, and to adopt a tree assessment process, or processes, that are more reliable and more likely to ensure that trees at risk are carefully monitored and ratepayers’ safety is more assured.
A document in this writer’s possession, obtained via an FOI application, declares that the QTRA system used in the City of Bayswater has never been debated or accepted as a basis for policy by the city council.
It seems only a matter of time before someone in the City of Bayswater  is killed by a limb falling from a tree that has never been adequately assessed.
Vince McCudden
Almondbury St, Bayswater

Grotty Freo a poor welcome
I WENT to Fremantle on Sunday November 8 in my vintage car to attend the Fremantle/Whiteman Brockwell Run.
I went early to give me time to have breakfast before the assembly of the cars at Fremantle Park in Ellen Street, off Parry Street.
I went to a nearby cafe by Fremantle harbour to have breakfast. What a mistake: I was totally disgusted.
It was a grotty, dirty place, rubbish on the tables and I took one look at the kitchen and left. What a disgraceful first impression for travelers off the cruise ships — the footbridge is right there.
Visitors must be left wondering how Fremantle was voted top 10 in the world for tourism, first impressions — more like third-world, especially with the other disgrace, the ugly woolstores, another eyesore.
That area definitely needs some attention to make it clean and welcoming to our travelers off cruise ships.
Come on Fremantle, lift your game.
Donelle Phillips
Barlee St, Mount Lawley 

Slow Optus
YOUR article (“Copper load of this,” Voice, October 31, 2015) highlights a problem in Perth.
I too have download speeds at 1.1 to 2Mbps, and to call that broadband is to take the user for a sucker.
Optus purchases bandwidth from Telstra and on-sells it to the retail customer.
The bandwidth Optus purchased is insufficient for broadband service to every Optus customer.
Optus blames its failure to supply in accordance with its advertising on AM radio waves or, worse, “service congestion!”
A quick solution to my problem, and for Michael of Dianella, would be for Optus to be required to have available sufficient bandwidth to supply a genuine broadband service which lives up to its advertisement.
Perhaps Ms MacTiernan can broach this subject (on our behalf) with federal communications minister Mitch Fifield.
Michael and I, and many broadband-wanting voters, await her report.
Rick Duley
Walcott St, North Perth
The Ed says: This letter was significantly edited for length.