POSTERS reading “blacks banned” are springing up around North Perth. Halinka Lamparksi spotted one at Robertson Park and alerted Vincent city council. Rangers swooped and removed about eight. While the shock headline indicates racist intent, the smaller text suggests the signs may have been slapped up by Aboriginal activists unhappy with police moving them out…

THE games console is set to mingle with the cello at Perth concert hall. As part of the 2014 Perth festival, the WA symphony orchestra will play music from famous video games as they are projected onto a huge screen in the background. The recital will include music from BioShock one, two and infinite; Grim…

THE developer of a Mt Hawthorn apartment block that was rejected by Vincent council has confirmed he’s appealing to the powerful but unelected state administrative tribunal, which has the authority to overturn decisions made by elected councils. Six locals fronted the final council meeting of 2013, saying the project was too big and would bring…

THE dream lives on, with Vincent council allowing Dream Studios to continue on Oxford Street. Vincent staffers wanted to close the non-compliant business down last year after a noise complaint, saying the business doesn’t “protect and enhance the health, safety and general welfare of the city’s inhabitants”. They’d wanted to deny retrospective approval, but councillors…

WALTERS BROOK in Mt Lawley is getting a $173,360 facelift following years of campaigning from a local environmental group. The Swan River tributary—effectively a Water Corporation drain—has been heavily eroded by fast-running water and contains little of its original vegetation. Vincent city council will restore the brook by re-contouring banks, installing gabion baskets (wire frames…

A DOG owner was spotted leaving her animal inside a hot car while she made two shopping trips. Katrina Montaut contacted the Voice saying she’d come across the pooch outside the North Perth plaza on December 29. The former Vincent council candidate says the dog was trapped for about 10 minutes with the owner nowhere…

FORMER Bayswater mayor Terry Kenyon has accused the man who beat him for the top job of playing favourites. The criticism follows mayor Sylvan Albert attending a tennis club function with two other councillors, but not Cr Kenyon. Cr Kenyon says every elected member should have the opportunity to attend civic events, “not the mayor…

THE Beaufort Street lettering artwork is sitting dormant while Vincent city council and the developer negotiate the final details. The council has paid Bremick Group part of the $133,000 for the project, but the Voice understands the rest of the cash is being withheld till it looks more like the approved plan. Ken Sealey is…

LIFE begins at 40—unless you’re the Wellington Street bus station. The WA government has announced demolition of the station, opened by Labor’s John Tonkin in 1973, will start next month. It will be replaced by the new underground Perth Busport, scheduled for completion in 2016. The old station was designed to be a central hub…

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker says premier Colin Barnett’s shark-baiting policy is “rushed and potentially dangerous”. Last month the WA government announced a tender for professional fishers to use hooks on baited drum lines to catch and kill great white, tiger or bull sharks. The lines are to be set 1km from selected Perth and…