THE ballots are merely trickling in at Vincent with a smidgen over 23 per cent of people having voted as of Wednesday October 14. In a mayoral election the turnout rate usually hovers between 30 and 35 per cent but it’s unlikely to get that high come polling night, since most people post their ballots…

WORK has started on a $340,000 puffin crossing on Guildford Road, following years of complaints from locals that school children are unable to cross the road safely. A puffin crossing has lights that turn green for motorists only when infrared detects no pedestrians are on the crossing. Guildford Road is so dangerous that several parents…

BAYSWATER council should stop having meetings and making resolutions during election periods, says a Mount Lawley resident. Adam Parsonage says the council should follow the leads of Perth, Vincent and Stirling councils which all go into “caretaker” mode during council election periods. He says a caretaker period would stop councillors tabling eleventh hour motions to…

WITH Australia rivalling the US in childhood obesity rates, a free program is kicking off at Maylands’ The Rise centre for kids seven to 13 who are above healthy weights. The WA health department-funded Better Health program runs across 10 weeks and aims to help kids make informed food choices rather than just sticking them…

STIRLING city council is seeking legal advice on whether it can overturn approval for Perth College to bulldoze four homes in the city’s heritage protection zone. The elected council recommended unanimous rejection of the demolition application but the decision was in the hands of the Barnett government-appointed local development assessments panel, which gave it the…

VINCENT city council is set to crack down on builders who make a mess of footpaths. With new developments springing up like weeds, mayor John Carey says he’s fielding more and more complaints about untidy streetfronts during construction, including rubble being strewn on verges. The council currently charges developers $2000 (for a single house) as…

ELECTION campaign signs supporting Bayswater mayor Sylvan Albert are springing up on realtor and developer sites across Maylands. Cr Albert has advertising on: • a Harcourts vacant lot at the corner of Kelvin and Susan Streets; • at the home of Acton director Paul Owen; and, • on a lot at the corner of Guildford…

AFTER much talk over the years it’s taken just a few months for the team behind Museum of Perth to get the doors open to the public this weekend. The not-for-profit museum has a focus on the city itself, chronicling the social, cultural, political and architectural history of Perth from times of early Aboriginal occupation.…

THE psychological issues faced by children of same-sex parents is being “hidden and marginalised” in WA, says a Perth counsellor. Katrina Alilovic (left) returned to Australia three years ago, having worked as a counsellor in the UK for 10 years, and says Britain is more open in its approach to same-sex parenting and multiculturalism. “The…

VISITORS to parliament house this weekend will find the foyer packed with protests from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Karrakatta Club, lobbying Sir John Forrest for the vote. For this year’s Heritage Days the theme is “People Who Shaped Perth” and women’s suffrage pioneers take centre stage. Actor Caroline McKenzie is playing Edith…