HAVING recently sent a letter to one of its own carparks asking what it thought of a new project, Vincent council is tightening up community consultation. Other failures have also highlighted the need for reform: Cr Emma Cole ran for council to improve the process after being told about a development near her just four…

VINCENT’S new CEO is 38-year-old Len Kosova, formerly planning director at Wanneroo city council. He was unanimously approved by councillors Tuesday night, with even John Pintabona (the only councillor who’d wanted to keep John Giorgi) agreeing he was the right man for the job. “We had 53 candidates but in the end we were blown…

STREET artists are banding together to spruce up tired old laneways around town. The idea came from mural artist Mel McVee, who’s painted the Beaufort Street chihuahua, the Leake Street Mr Spaghetti Arms and the Leederville loo mural. Ms McVee got the idea after painting a piece in the Grosvenor Road laneway in concert with…

THIS is an artist’s impression of the $85,000 public artwork chosen for the new Seventh Avenue bridge in Maylands. The work will be made using jarrah from the old 1913 Seventh Avenue bridge, which is being demolished to make way for its $9.3 million successor. The blurb describes the artwork as “essentially an abstract deconstruction…

STIRLING city council will spend $12 million to move to a three-bin collection by July 2015, with ratepayers slugged an extra $37 per year to pay for it. The council was forced to abandon its single-bin system after the Atlas recycling facility in Mirrabooka unexpectedly closed last August. The facility had achieved a 65 per cent…

STIRLING city council will replace its bulk verge collection for residential properties with an on-demand skip bin service by July 2015. It will cost ratepayers an extra $27 per year. The council came under fire last year when it switched to one annual verge collection, resulting in a slow pick-up and piles of trash sitting on…

A MAYLANDS architect is letting fledgling artists show off their work in his shop window for free. Patrick Miller, who owns Finespun on Railway Parade, says artists get great exposure in his shopfront as trains crawl out of Maylands station. He lets artists display for three-month stints and plans to expand the scheme to include…

LOCAL firefighter Andrew Duckworth has been researching the history of the North Perth fire brigade, uncovering stories of daring rescues and non-existent occupational health and safety standards in the early 1900s. Mr Duckworth, who’s been in the fire brigade since 1994, had never been particularly into history until his union bought the old North Perth…

A PLAN to help address long-standing antisocial behaviour at Wellington Square has been approved by Perth city council, but it points out the bulk of issues are in the WA government’s domain. The PCC is responding to a recent petition from residents of the Rise apartments on Wellington Street, but the complaints aren’t new. Locals…

LOCAL artist Ken Sealey’s plan to run a small hotel from his Highgate home remains alive, with Vincent councillors deferring the decision. Planning staff were deadset on refusing the plan, but councillors picked up some oddities in the rules being applied and held off for now. Mr Sealey, who crafted the big blue head outside…