LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s strongest ally gagged any debate about transparency at Tuesday’s council meeting. Scaffidi critic Reece Harley had moved a motion that could see the lord mayor prevented from chairing the council’s audit committee. The committee, which Ms Scaffidi currently heads, is responsible for keeping a close eye on the city’s “corporate governance…

THE Greens are promising to double Perth’s tree canopy by 2040 under an “urban forest” plan. Various councils like Vincent, Perth and Bayswater have policies to increase the dire coverage of trees over barren streets, but Greens WA senator Scott Ludlam reckons the issue is so serious it needs federal attention. Bushland lost Perth’s lost…

KINGS PARK’S guides have been crowned WA’s community volunteer organisation of the year. Last year the 125 volunteers took more than 48,000 visitors through the park, pointing out odd plants, rare wildflowers and signs of the shy animals like quenda or monitors that live in the park. Volunteer Ann Newman has been doing it for…

COMPLAINTS about a Vincent Street block part-owned by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and her husband Joe continue to flow in. Since December neighbours have complained about the clang of construction work outside permitted times at 285 Vincent Street. The latest complaints allege the developers used noisy dewatering equipment throughout the night. On May 4 Vincent…

LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi reckons her breaches of the local government act haven’t damaged public confidence in Perth council, but its Facebook page is being hammered with calls for her to resign. Even innocuous posts such as an article about the Perth Swing Dance Society are attracting sledges. “SACK THE LORD MAYOR” Mark New commented…

AUSTRALIA’S most jetsetting Australian lord mayor, Perth’s Lisa Scaffidi, is off again to China at a cost to ratepayers of $4,400. The four-day tour of sister cities Nanjing and Chengdu is being organised by StudyPerth, a peak industry body for education institutes that aims to promote Perth as a good destination for foreign students. Cr…

BIG buildings projects approved by development assessment panels have had their billboards vandalised by opponents. The contentious seven-storey Yolk Property Group project “Heir” at 11 King William Street in Bayswater had its virtues overwritten with descriptions of “27 POXY FLATS” for sale, with “ONLY ONE PARKING BAY”. Another of Yolk’s DAP-approved mixed use developments near…

BAYSWATER council is to resume recording its meetings and will now upload them to its website. In 2010 the microphones were switched off at the height of internal squabbles which saw one councillor referred to as “poodlebrain”. At the time former councillor Graham Pittaway claimed councillors were trawling through the recordings to find minor verbal…