TWO Leederville parks owned by Vincent council will not be sold off, following a unanimous vote by councillors. Council staff recommended selling off five lots to help finance Covid-19 relief efforts and soften the blow to city coffers (“Land sale for Covid-19 relief,” Voice, April 4, 2020).  At the April 7 meeting councillors pulled the…

LABOR’S federal Perth MP Patrick Gorman has penned a notice of motion imploring the Morrison government to rescue artists slipping through the Covid-19 welfare cracks. The motion calls the arts sector “an essential part of our economy, our community and our identity”. It says the Covid-19 coronavirus has “destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of working artists”…

THE first woman elected to a WA road board is set to be honoured with Bayswater council naming Nellie Tant Reserve after her. Nellie Fawdrey Tant (1880 to 1949) was elected to the Belmont-Bayswater Road Board on April 9, 1921, before resigning the next year.  The park, informally named The Strand Reserve, is the patch…

WHATLEY Crescent businesses in Maylands have banded together to survive the Covid-19 storm, tossing aside rivalries to share deliveries. Chapels on Whatley co-founder Keith Archer said it would’ve been a struggle staying open while going it alone. He sells some tea online, but 85 per cent of his business is from people coming into the…

70 per cent of economy yet to sign up for the ‘war’ HERALD EDITORIAL WITH Coronavirus spreading like wildfire only 30 per cent of the economy shut down by government decree is doing the heavy lifting to reduce social interactions, slow the infection rate and reduce pressure on the health system. And what a price…

VINCENT’S verge rubbish collection, colloquially known as “Bring out your Dead” day, will not be happening during Covid-19 restrictions.  Usual bin collections will continue but the bulk pick ups due to start April 20 have been canned for now. A council report says “the city’s contractor has raised serious concern regarding their ability to undertake…

Commr says support a ‘political response’ to Covid-19 PERTH’S commissioners have invoked the Covid-19 crisis to support an apartment complex at Elizabeth Quay that’s 26 storeys above guidelines and critics say threatens to clog the precinct with cars. Brookfield had two projects at the quay before the council’s March 31 meeting; a 56-level apartment tower…

AN already-ailing arts industry has been dealt a devastating followup blow with several key pillars of the local scene failing to get funding from the Australia Council.  The Blue Room Theatre and Barking Gecko didn’t have their four-year funding arrangements extended after making it through to the final selection stage. They have instead been given…

EVERY day thousands of our fellow citizens go to work and court an ugly, painful death.  These are the front-line staff and volunteers in hospitals, health centres, local surgeries, St John’s Ambulance, Aged Care and the welfare sector battling the scourge of Coronavirus swirling around the world. We all know some of them as family,…

IT’LL be a very different Easter service for Sonlife church’s congregation this weekend as they log into an online sermon. Sonlife’s senior pastor Binh Nguyen says leading a church through a pandemic never came up in seminary, and he’s had to think “how do we still have community and fellowship, and that ability for people…