A POPULAR on-road cafe plan has been canned—for now—following accusations it was tantamout to favouritism. Vincent city council had trialled the on-road cafe—ORC for short—outside Foam cafe in Leederville, turning a couple of carbays into a mini al fresco area, echoing set ups in San Francisco. It was so well utilised neighbouring councils came sniffing…

THE folding of the Swan River Trust into the WA parks and wildlife department will not affect funding for current and future projects along the Swan River, says WA environment minister Albert Jacob. Former Bayswater mayor Terry Kenyon and Labor Maylands MP Lisa Baker have expressed concern various projects could fall by the wayside. Their…

Vincent’s new deputy mayor Ros Harley warns Oxford Street’s residential area could be forever changed for the worse if the council keeps approving the spread of offices. The council voted to approve a plan to knock down a 1929 home and erect a three-storey development, which will mostly be offices with five units up top.…

The original stonework of the Alexander Forrest statue has been revealed after Perth city council workers removed a lime wash coating on the base. The statue by Pietro Giacomo Porcelli was erected in 1903 to pay tribute to the famed surveyor (a brother of Sir John Forrest), who died in 1901. Situated at the busy…

Docos chart the Hyde Park Hotel When Woolies turned the old Hyde Park Hotel into a boutique watering hole, independent music in Perth suffered a blow and artists were left to cry in their beer. Fridey at the Hydey documents the last years of the pub and its hey-day as a punk venue, and features…

School pack facts about the Anzac legend School kids will get to learn all about the men and women who offered up their lives for their country, thanks to an education drive at the Anzac Cottage in Mt Hawthorn. Anne Chapple says a Lotterywest grant will help pay for a primary school information pack. “It…

PERTH city council has been labelled “unromantic” after its painters cut padlocks symbolising unbreakable love from the Claisebrook Cove bridge . Lord mayor Lisa Scafffidi promises the city will replace the locks. Heartbroken Phil Harrison told the Voice, “I placed a professionally engraved padlock there for my wife some three years ago,” alongside locks from…

Four Bayswater councillors voted not to fast-track a $10,000 donation to the Philippines disaster fund, with two arguing the timing was unimportant. In order to deal with the motion immediately the issue had to be deemed “urgent business”: Councillors Chris Cornish, Michelle Sutherland, Mike Sabatino and Mike Anderton believed it wasn’t. “I’m not against the…

TERRY KENYON is trying to force bankruptcy on council colleagues Mike Sabatino and Mike Anderton. The former mayor—represented by Harold Paiker—says the pair owe him $84,000 from the settlement of a defamation case, so he’s taken them to the federal court to have them declared bankrupt. Crs Sabatino and Anderton—represented by John Hammond—claim Cr Kenyon…

THE run-down Robertson Park AIDS memorial has been fixed following extensive lobbying by the Sisters of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence. The order of queer nuns contacted the Voice in 2012 complaining the memorial had fallen into disrepair, the lights weren’t working, and it was unclear what the memorial was actually for. It was also…