VINCENT councillors strongly back mayor John Carey’s desire to reconsider the city’s ongoing membership of the WA local government association. They agree the peak body for WA councils has been a wet lettuce on issues including council amalgamations and transparency. WALGA president Lynne Craigie sounds largely satisfied with levels of council transparency and training for…

THE Maylands Hawkers Markets should relocate from The Rise or close because the area is busy enough without it and there’s already a parking shortfall says Bayswater councillor John Rifici. Cr Rifici stood just two seats from markets founder Catherine Ehrhardt — now a colleague on council — when he made his comments this month.…

THIS sculpture cost about $720,000. The Maylands artwork was required as part of Bayswater council’s “per cent for public art” policy. Developers with projects more than a million dollars are required to contribute one per cent of the cost to public art: they can either commission their own, or contribute to a council fund. A…

LOCAL history fan Dallas Robertson spends countless hours recreating Perth’s lost historic landscape in virtual reality. After about 80 hours on his Xbox, he recently finished a virtual model of Government House in the computer game Minecraft, a wildly popular Lego-like game that lets players build anything they want. He’s already fleshing out the surrounds…

CHINATOWN may soon stretch down William or James streets under a multi-million dollar revamp of Northbridge. Chung Wah Association secretary Ting Chen met with WA treasurer Mike Nahan late late year to discuss options for a new Chinatown as part of an overhaul of the suburb. Dr Chen has tabled two options: closing James Street…

A SUPPORTER of Aboriginal activists will receive $966.70 in compensation from Perth city council for items confiscated last year from a Heirisson Island camp. The mediated settlement looks likely to pave the way for many more compensation claims: five truckloads of property was taken in nine raids between March and August by Perth city council…

MOST people picture mayoral duties as cutting the ribbon on a new length of footpath or debating the height of fences, but Vincent mayor John Carey found himself playing hire-a-hubby to an 81-year-old ratepayer who called him about security issues. On Sunday he posted on Facebook he was “contacted last night at 9pm from an…

WOOLWORTHS hasn’t given up on its long-held desire to demolish the Maylands Peninsula Tavern and replace it with a $3.5 million, 1000sqm Dan Murphy’s liquor barn. The grocery giant says it is “reviewing and assessing” its options regarding the WA liquor commission’s rejection of its application last week. Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker, a long-time…

Just slow down WITH thousands of children returning to school for the start of the 2016 educational year, we’ll also see the enforcement of specially zoned speed limits around schools in the mornings and afternoons. Road safety authorities set the school zone limits to 40km per hour at those specific times of day, for a…