PLANS for a large ritual bath at a Noranda synagogue have been approved by Bayswater council, with a parking shortfall excused on the basis Orthodox Jews don’t drive on the Shabbat. Council rules usually require 72 bays for a place of worship the size of Noranda’s synagogue, ensuring worshippers don’t clog up nearby streets. With…

THE inaugural International Muslim Film Festival will premiere in Perth on September 7 and 8. It’s being organised by alternative media group Badayel House, and Festival director Joanne McKeown says the aim is to break down prejudice and misconceptions about Muslims and to humanise their stories. There’s 36 short films with some international selections and…

ABUSING expense privileges at the City of Perth was a “fact of life” for at least 20 years a long-time council insider says. The insider, who requested anonymity, had privileged access to the inner workings of the council, and says staff were aware it occurred but were reluctant to step in. “For 20 years it’s…

A CONTRACT which caught the eye of the state Corruption and Crime Commission was given the all-clear by the City of Perth’s governance unit without adequate investigation, an inquiry into the council has heard. On January 10 last year the CCC sent a letter to then-CEO Martin Mileham after receiving a complaint that a senior…

AT the height of his reign architect Harold Krantz was responsible for 1000 flats a year going up around Perth. From the 1930s to the ’60s, credible estimates place Krantz as being behind more than 90 per cent of the city’s apartments. A new exhibition at the Museum of Perth, The Krantz Legacy, is now…

NUMBER 40 Mount Street, West Perth, is probably the kind of micro-community Harold Krantz had in mind when he wrote of “young people… and old folk” living together in an affordable spot close to the city. Built in 1939, today it houses a cross section of students, city workers, retirees, and cranky communal cat Faloush.…

MOUNT LAWLEY locals got the chance to bend premier Mark McGowan’s ear when he came by for a Community Cabinet this week. Mr McGowan’s been hauling his cabinet members around the state to hear about local issues. A town hall-style meeting at the Yokine Bowls Club on Sunday was followed by a whistle-stop tour of…

STIRLING council has tried to placate business owners in Mt Lawley by saying designs for a plaza on Beaufort Street aren’t set in stone. Last week the Voice heard from landowners and business people dissatisfied with the consultation process, loathe to lose any car bays to the council’s plaza plan in the public car park…

BUSINESS owners, landlords, the local residents association and the Mt Lawley society have condemned Stirling council’s plans for a plaza in a Mt Lawley car park along Beaufort Street. On Tuesday the group convened a war cabinet to fight the proposal, with Ian Cornell from major landholder Michael Johnson & Co saying their message was…

WITH Vietnam Veterans Day being commemorated tomorrow (Sunday August 18), the 50th anniversary of two lesser-known battles from the war will be highlighted. Veterans association WA president Richard Williams told the Voice while the Battle of Long Tan would remain a focus of the commemoration because of its significance to the Australian war effort, he…