Perth Voice Interactive

• BAYSWATER is a step closer to getting its own men’s shed and it will likely cost ratepayers $133,000: the proposed site at 21 Raymond Avenue has a shed on it that needs renovating. It is council-owned and has been used by rangers. Mayor Barry McKenna says it’s underutilised and won’t be missed. He hopes the men’s shed blokes are able to come good on their word to fund their own equipment. “There are 40 members and they’re keen on setting it up the way they want it,” Cr McKenna says. The council’s planning committee endorsed the plan this week, and it’ll go to the next full meeting for rubber-stamping.

• COUNCILLOR Terry Kenyon is in some hot water with old friend and colleague Alan Radford. The former mayor owes tens of thousands of dollars to Cr Radford, and the issue is playing out in Perth’s Magistrates Court. Both men say it’s “none of your business” to Voice readers. But the courts think the public has a right to know it’s not all sunshine and roses in their local government, and handed court transcripts to the Voice. The transcript states Cr Radford has loaned more than $65,000 to Cr Kenyon since 2010. Incremental payments were made, but an interest rate of 6.3 per cent per year is creating quite the headache for Cr Kenyon.

• RIFO’S Cafe in Maylands needs a hug after locals gave it a hard time online. Cr John Rifici, the cafe’s former owner, was reported in last week’s Voice saying the popular hawker’s markets should move or close, and that prompted a fair bit of flak from markets-loving locals. Cr Catherine Ehrhardt, the markets’ doyen, is taking to Facebook with nice words about the Eighth Avenue cafe, which for two years has been owned by a couple of young brothers. Cr Rifici remains the cafe’s landlord but has nothing do with the business.

• MAYOR Barry McKenna used a Barnett government event in Maylands to highlight the chronic problem of trucks getting jammed at the King William Street underpass, near the train station. In Maylands to cut a ribbon on Guildford Road’s new pedestrian crossing, WA transport minister Dean Nalder was earbashed on site about the issue. Cr McKenna proposed a cheap, temporary solution of using signs to steer truckies in another direction. A permanent solution, he says, is to build an underground station. Mr Nalder made no promises.

• AFTER three years of toing and froing, the council will build a bus shelter at Maylands’ main bus stop outside the hall on Eighth Avenue. Pensioners had asked former mayor Sylvan Albert for a shelter years ago, but because the WA transport department wouldn’t split the bill for one (eight commuters a day isn’t enough to warrant one, they claim), the council never committed to it. The council’s stance has since changed. Councillors reckon if they build it, people will come.