A PETITION to remove pesky peppermint trees in Yokine has been slapped in front of Stirling council. Fourteen Lonsdale Street locals are demanding the newly planted peppies be pulled out of their verge. “We consider the trees to be unsuitable for the purpose due to their appearance, size, growth habit and reputation for producing large…

ALANNAH MACTIERNAN’S political career is almost certain to be revived with Labor leader Mark McGowan keen to see her fill a vacancy left by retiring upper house MP Ken Travers. Ms MacTiernan, 63, has served as state MP, Vincent mayor, and recently retired from federal politics as the Perth MP. Some Liberal party members greeted…

STIRLING council’s attempts to block the demolition of a 1923 house on Third Avenue has been smacked down by the state administrative tribunal. The house is in a “heritage protection area” and places older than the 1960s are supposed to be retained, but following SAT orders to reconsider it the council has now run up…

STIRLING council is moving to tighten up heritage protection in Mount Lawley, Menora and Inglewood. A review of the suburbs’ “character retention guidelines” and the city’s planning scheme found a loophole that could allow the demolition of old homes the city is trying to protect. If an applicant could show a streetscape was no longer…

STIRLING council says it’s seen off the scourge of multiple dwellings across most of the city. Back in 2012 there was a clamour over a stuff-up by the WA Planning Commission that opened the floodgates for suburban homes to be demolished and multiple units stacked on the block. Councils scrambled to come up with new…

ST PAUL’S primary school in Mount Lawley has been introducing its students to the world of robotics and coding. During first term this year, the students used webpages such as code.org and Scratch to catch up with technological advances, which led to an after-school coding club for year 3,4,5 or 6 students who wanted to…

IT appears the Barnett government has backed down from closing the state library shop. The Voice had been told by a source within the library board last year that the shop was definitely closing (“Shh, no talking about the cuts,” February 28,2015) and Fremantle author John Dowson was told a month ago to pick up…

THE federal court has provided a glimmer of hope for a group of senior and disabled citizens fighting to keep their bus route from being axed. The group, known as Sandbag, won a temporary injunction on Friday which prevents the public transport authority from pulling the pin on route 14 through Mt Hawthorn until the…

MORE than 3000 signatures from the “No Houses in Wetlands” petition will be submitted to Parliament this week in an effort to halt further clearing next to Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary. One block owned by the D’Orazio family has already been extensively cleared following WA planning commission approval for a subdivision, with a housing project…

REAL faeries don’t wear plastic tiaras or wave sparkly wands, say eco-faerie Cara Walker. She’s on a mission to send the Disneyfied image of faeries up in smoke and give them back their ancient reputation as fierce wilderness warriors. Walker will be dropping by Maylands library for Book Week to teach local kids about looking…