ALFRED MARSHALL died in 1947 but you might still see him after you’ve downed a few shandies at the Queens Tavern in Highgate. His ghost is rumoured to haunt the pub, where he’d perished at the age of 64 after falling down the back stairs. His body wasn’t found till the next day. His wife…

THE owner of the Charles Hotel is seeking a rezoning which, if granted, would allow up to five storeys across the 14,000sqm site. Vincent city council wants the sprawling Charles Street site rezoned up to R100 in its new planning scheme but Chris Angelkov is angling for R160 residential-commercial. He says he has no immediate…

VINCENT city council will raid interest earnings of $745,352, accummulated from its aged persons and senior citizens reserve over the past five years, to offset its surprise budget deficit. The council’s financials are in deep trouble after $3.2 million listed as a surplus was found to be a deficit. The transfer was approved at a…

COOLBINIA residents say their verges and streets have been wrecked by faltering installation of underground power in their street. House owners forked out around $5000 each for the work but complications saw contractor Diamond Communications down tools for 10 weeks. Carnarvon Street’s Mike Davidson has taken a black humour approach, nicknaming the contractor “Diamonds take…

THE Maylands ratepayers and residents association has written to Bayswater city council expressing “no confidence” in local councillor John Rifici. MRRA president Roger Tomlins says Cr Rifici has not attended any association meetings and ratepayers feel “disenfranchised”. “There is a definite lack of representation,” he says. “He never comes to our meetings, despite me asking…

MAYLANDS PENINSULA primary P&C has raised $17,000 to buy electronic equipment for its school. Parents raised the funds via sausage sizzles, lap-a-thons and home-made baking sales. The money will be used to buy 28 iPads, a portable synching/charging unit and junior primary apps for the pre-primary and year one rooms. P&C president Teresa Borwick says…

THE only purpose-built pawnbroker’s building known to exist in WA is set to be added to the state heritage register. The Barrack Street shop was built between 1890-1900 for pawnbroker Phineas Seeligson, a philanthropist and prominent leader in WA’s Jewish community. Henry Stirling Trigg, the first architect born and trained in WA, designed the narrow…

THERE’S an edge of darkness to Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, despite the laugh-a-minute jokes that sent chuckles and guffaws around the State Theatre this week. Set in 1953, on a fictitious 23rd floor of the Rockerfeller Plaza in New York the play is based on the life of legendary American comic Sid…

ELDERLY Homeswest tenants in Mount Hawthorn have endured their second week without plumbing as they wait for the WA housing department to fix sewers. They’re worried because they haven’t spotted any plumbers on-site in seven days. The department’s placed portable toilets and showers in the complex’s courtyards, but the plastic facilities, designed for building sites,…

STIRLING ratepayers are being slugged a full recycling and waste fee in rates, even though the council has recycled virtually nothing for more than a year. Sending 84,000 tonnes of waste straight to landfill has saved the council a whopping $1.6 million, but none of it has gone back to ratepayers. Every month since last…