NEW powers granted to unelected state government planning bureaucrats have elected councils up in arms. Councils say the changes — quietly introduced by the Barnett government in November — mean they no longer have any control over the density of new developments. That authority has been handed to unelected bureaucrats in the WA planning commission,…

AFTER five months the TV is finally fixed for residents at Ray Healy towers in East Perth. For months the reception’s been on the fritz at the Goderich Street housing department complex, with glitchy pictures starting to plague them around the time of last year’s AFL grand final. The department had told residents “the matter…

INGLEWOOD residents are being asked what they’d like to see replace the suburb’s former IGA supermarket. “This valuable block should not be allowed to languish as vacant for too long,” says Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker. “The position makes it an ideal location for mixed use residential and commercial.” Previous plans for an upmarket estate…

SIX trees have been poisoned at Maylands’ Brearly Lake and councillors believe a local resident wanting better city views is responsible. If so, that desire will be thwarted, with the council set to erect a three-metre high sign where the trees were, while 12 replacements grow. “These people are going to have a big ugly…

BAYSWATER council has given itself a pat on the back for being the first in WA to apply transparency rules for overseas and interstate ratepayer-funded staff travel. The new regulations will require councillors to report on their trip, with detailed lists of expenses in accommodation, food, cocktails and transport. Councillor Brent Fleeton, the instigator of…

BACK in 2014 the Maylands Church of Christ was on the brink of closing, with the congregation having dwindled to just five people. Pastor Ronnie Fung, who’d come out from New York to work at a church in Subi, was offered the job to crank it up. When he was first offered the church’s version…

STIRLING council has voted overwhelmingly not to introduce a register that records meetings between elected members and major developers. Eight of 10 councillors decided the register — based on Vincent council’s model — would be too onerous and unnecessary, especially as most major developments in the city are now handled by the local development assessment…

NOT enough public transport or conservation parks are some of the issues Stirling council has with the WA government’s draft plan for population growth over the next 34 years. Stirling will send a seven-page critique of the state’s draft “Perth and Peel green growth plan for 3.5 million”. A draft copy of the letter, tabled…