PERTH lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi has told the Voice to stop talking to her and has instructed us to put all questions to Perth city council’s public relations unit. Until last year the lord mayor had been happy to answer queries directly, responding quickly and often with a distinct personal flair that provided readers with…

THIS toilet block may just be Bayswater’s next tourist attraction. Well, that’s what the Friends of Claughton Reserve community group hopes will come of a $64,000 art project. The group has convinced Bayswater council to dump a plan to demolish the reserve’s “run-down” toilet block and replace it with an automatic, self-cleaning loo at the…

A DRONE has been hovering over the house of Bayswater councillor Chris Cornish in recent days, convincing him of the need for the WA government to get serious about protecting privacy. “We don’t like it when we hang around the pool,” he tells the Voice. “This thing’s been hanging around for three days solid”. In…

THE first of 12,000 Syrian asylum seekers the federal government agreed to embrace this week enjoyed an Aussie barbecue hosted by the City of Bayswater. Six members of the Kujah family moved to Australia in November and now live in Yokine. Mayor Barry McKenna was called into a special meeting on Monday and asked by…

WHILE foreshores were flooded by an estimated 300,000 revellers on January 26, hundreds of Aboriginal people and activists marking the date as Invasion Day made their way from the significant site at Matagarup (Heirisson Island) to the Survival Day concert at Ozone Reserve. Activist Alex Bainbridge documented the march and says it’s the biggest turnout…

• THEATRE historian Ivan King has picked up another premier’s Australia Day active citizenship award (he also won in 2005). Having set up the Musuem of Performing Arts where he maintains a massive collection of memorabilia beneath His Majesty’s Theatre, he was given the award “for service to the performing arts as an historian and…

FLYERS have been stuffed into East Perth letterboxes imploring locals to speak up against the planned demolition of two old houses at 60 and 62 Cheriton Street. The planning application doesn’t list an owner but whoever bought the homes (number 62 sold for $1.75 million in 2013) has applied to bowl them both over. At…

THE WA Police’s “Frontline 2020” model has been hailed for breaking a cycle of drinking and violence at Wellington Square. Support for the model follows Labor branding it a “failed model” in the wake of a spike in crime statistics over the past six months. “It may have worked in some small policing districts in…

THE Mount Lawley Tennis Centre has almost tripled its junior squads in the past two years. The Central Avenue club has 14 junior teams of players up to the age of 18 — in 2013/14 there were five. Rhys McDougall, who’s been on board for 18 months and is the club’s third head coach in…

GARY STEVENSON has been sacked as CEO at Perth city council, just three years after ratepayers were told he was “head and shoulders” above other candidates for the job. The chief executive was terminated Wednesday morning by a unanimous vote of lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and councillors, despite having almost two years remaining on his…