HOMEOWNERS may be required to shell out more than $8000 each for underground power around Moir, Brookman and Lake Streets. Lake Street local Roy Gilbert opposes the underground power plan, fearing it could cost up to $10,000 per property given the way so many infrastructure projects run over budget. He says most of the neighbours…

SENIOR Vincent council staff aren’t keen on rolling out underground power across the rest of the city and, according to one councillor, seem to be deliberately obstructive. Last year the elected council asked staff to prepare a strategy to roll it out but new special projects director Gaby Pieraccini—brought in to take big projects out…

ABOUT 15,000 people made their way to St Patrick’s Day festivities in Leederville last weekend, organisers report. Karen Hennessy from Irish Families in Perth says about 6000 lined the streets for the parade, with bigger numbers coming along to the festival. She says they were pleased as punch they’d retained numbers during the day, and…

THE Menora synagogue will stage an opera written by Jewish prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. The Emperor of Atlantis—a dark fable about death and love—was devised by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien while imprisoned in Terezin, Czechoslovakia in 1943. The opera was rehearsed but the Nazis never allowed it to…

AFTER 15 years on James Street, restaurateur Tam Pham is calling it a day. Mr Pham and wife Tai ran the Saigon Cafe, a cornerstone of Northbridge’s late night crowd. The independent, family-run restaurant will be replaced by Malaysian chain PappaRich. Mr Pham says it feels like the right time to move on: a buyer…

ALANNAH MacTIERNAN has been red-carded from the House of Representatives for the second time after heckling “protected species” education minister Chris Pyne during question time. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop sent the fiery Perth MP out of the chamber for an hour, after she twice heckled Mr Pyne while he was spruiking the government’s teacher education ministerial…

THE contractor who created the Beaufort Street arty sign won’t be paid the full amount, with Vincent council unhappy with the result. Bremick was initially contracted for $95,000 to erect the big Beaufort Street Hollywood-style lettering at the Barlee Street carpark, but asked for an additional $38,000 because the concrete work was more expensive than…

THE Mount Lawley Society has been short-listed for a gong in the WA heritage awards. It is a finalist in the “outstanding contribution to heritage by a community-based organisation” category. The MLS has been busy in the past two years, successfully campaigning to preserve the old façade on the burnt-down Mount Lawley primary school and…

LIGHTNING PARK recreation centre is set to get a $400,000 extension from the WA government. The centre is home to The Noranda Hawks football club and Morley Eagles tee-ball club. The grant will be used to extend the clubrooms in order to hold members’ functions, awards nights and other community events. Morley Liberal MP Ian…