THE days of Bayswater councillors being farewelled with a ratepayer-funded cocktail bash and $1000 could soon be over. Bayswater Residents’ Association president Tony Green tabled a motion at last week’s AGM of electors for the tradition to end. The motion will go before council in January. Mr Green says the largesse is no longer relevant…

A LOOMING Australia-wide ban soon to be introduced on wireless microphones could ruin small businesses and non-profit clubs and cost the WA education department millions. The owner of a local PA hire company says the ban will cost his firm $40,000 to replace or retune just 30 items of equipment. The powerful Australian Communications and…

A RARE heritage-listed cottage on Brookman Street must be rebuilt after an engineer’s report found “very little of the original building… can be practically retained”. Brookman Street and nearby Moir Street are a one-of-a-kind precinct of affordable housing from the late 19th century. Because of the rarity of an intact clump together, a blanket state…

A MOVE by Stirling city council to cut red tape for developers and fast-track building applications has split council staff and councillors. The council voted that development applications should no longer be required for single houses that comply with the council’s planning scheme and are outside heritage zones. The onus will now be on the…

THE Leederville carnival organisers have turned to crowd-funding to help pay their bills. Director Jimmy Murphy took to pozible.com to ask the public to chip in, with local businesses pitching in free meals for generous donors. Despite the wild success of the event—40,000 compared to last year’s 24,000—“we are down about $4000,” Mr Murphy wrote.…

THE Water Corporation has pulled the plug on its $150 million facelift in Leederville, announcing the project has been “indefinitely delayed”. Vincent council had approved the massive project in October 2011, allowing the Water Corp to knock down its two-storey HQ and build six towers, each between 10 and 27 storeys tall. These were to…

Stories by DAVID BELL: VINCENT mayor John Carey is furious Perth city council has secretly polled his ratepayers. Perth-appointed pollsters have been phoning Vincent residents asking questions about amalgamations, including whether they want their small council’s suburbs to be kept together, and how they’d feel about being in Perth. Mr Carey says he recently met…

KIDS will be pleased to know, with Christmas around the corner, that there’s more than just fun to online gaming. A study by Edith Cowan University Associate Professor Mark McMahon (right) has found social and educational benefits too. His evidence refutes the popular view of online gaming as anti-social. With games becoming more interactive ‘gamers’…

THE first sods have been turned on the new $11.2 million Mt Lawley primary school. Construction should be completed by the end of next year, in time for enrolments in 2015. The 100-year-old school was burnt down in July 2012 and the teenage arsonists sentenced to eight months’ gaol. The Mount Lawley Society and hundreds…