THREE Bayswater sports clubs that face losing their grounds are filthy with the Bayswater city council and Bayswater Soccer Club for freezing them out of major plans for Frank Drago Reserve. The soccer club is keen for the reserve to become the new $25 million home of soccer in WA (Voice, May 24, 2014) and…

FIFTY-TWO people have applied to be Vincent CEO. The job is vacant after councillors decided 7-1 not to renew veteran CEO John Giorgi’s contract. Following that decision some of Mr Giorgi’s supporters reckoned the council—which may disappear in mergers—would have trouble filling the role. “In fact it’s been quite the opposite,” says mayor John Carey.…

A WOMAN quoted in last week’s story about smoking accessory merchant Cloud 9 was not the “old lady” alleged to have racially abused the shop’s owner. The woman quoted—who was also unhappy to see her name published—says she has never spoken to the owner. The Voice apologises to the woman for causing her distress, and…

PERTH city council CEO Gary Stevenson has taken WA premier Colin Barnett to task over council rates. The premier has criticised councils for raising rates too high but Mr Stevenson says WA government cost-shifting is forcing councils’ hands. At Tuesday’s finance committee meeting of the council, Mr Stevenson pointed out that while “the premier went…

BAYSWATER ratepayers will “likely” pay more for waste collection following the doubling of the WA government’s landfill levy, mayor Sylvan Albert has conceded. With the fee skyrocketing to $55 a tonne, Bayswater’s bill for the 18,000 tonnes of waste it sends to landfill every year jumps from $495,000 to $990,000. “It’s likely that it will…

ANYONE who’s booked their wedding at Harold Boas gardens in 2015 may have to think again. The heritage-listed and picturesque gardens’ lakes are badly leaking and look likely to get a $1.4 million repair job, starting in January. Perth city council staffers concede it’ll have a “major impact on wedding bookings”. Unless brides want excavators,…

DENHAM “BOB” BOULGER is 81 and full of beans. He spent three days trudging around Vincent in the rain—hiking up stairs, avoiding rottweilers and assiduously door-knocking—to collect 142 signatures and trigger a special electors’ meeting on council mergers. The sprightly octogenarian wants Vincent’s boundaries to remain intact, unlike Vincent city council which has officially proposed…

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker has enlisted Channel 7 in her battle against a Dan Murphy’s liquor barn planned for Maylands. The 990sqm bottleshop—part of a redeveloped $3.5 million Peninsula Tavern—has proved unpopular with both Bayswater city council and Maylands Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, which say access to cheap grog contributes to anti-social problems throughout…

A SLOW point has been installed by mistake on Palmerston Street because Vincent council workers were using old plans. Whoopsy. The choke point forces cars heading in one direction to halt while those going the other way continue: it cost between $5000 and $10,000 to put in. Councillors had voted 7-1 in February 2013 to…

AUSTRALIAN troops withdrew from Afghanistan last year but for many the memories are indelible. Maylands’ Dorsa Nazemi-Salman has just returned from a 13-month stint in Herat, western Afghanistan, where she worked for the Red Cross as a protection aid worker. The 34-year-old was in charge of Herat Provincial Prison, the country’s second largest gaol, where…