LEGAL action is brewing between Vincent city council and local artist Matt McVeigh, with a letter sent to council alleging breach of contract. The council originally voted to pay Mr McVeigh $30,000 for a work of public art. He was advanced $5000. Vincent mayor Alannah MacTiernan said McVeigh later told the council he couldn’t create…

THE lacrosse under-18s national championships are on at humble Halliday Park this week. A neighbourhood snoop called the Voice to say the local club had been out painting the field markings last Sunday. Trouble is, Bayswater city council mows the park behind the Bayswater hotel twice a week and next day the painstaking linework ended…

TWO men allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at Forrest Park in Mt Lawley last Sunday morning but police are refusing to provide details. Early in the week the Voice received calls from two locals concerned about the incident. They’d heard the woman had been walking her dog when three men attacked her, but that turned…

BAYSWATER deputy mayor Barry McKenna has hinted his council is prepared to go to the supreme court to stop a concrete batching plant being built in the city (Voice, April 20, 2013). The unelected but powerful state administrative tribunal is on the verge of approving a concrete batching plant, over the objections of the elected…

BAYSWATER local Jim Chantry wants the old Maylands Hall turned into a new community theatre. The 67-year-old actor, who also likes to tinker in the mens shed, says he got the idea when the council moved the library into the new Rise building, leaving the hall empty. “It’s a lovely hall,” he says. “I thought…

HIGHER rubbish fees are on the way for Vincent residents, and neighbouring Stirling council is to blame says mayor Alannah MacTiernan. Stirling is pulling out of the Mindarie Regional Council, which handles household waste for seven councils. When Stirling leaves the remaining councils will have to make up the shortfall. “It is completely unacceptable that…

ART lovers are planning to boycott a new bakery that’s about to open in the old Soto Espresso cafe because the new owners are removing a mural (Voice, April 20, 2013). Some are threatening to vandalise whatever replaces it with their excrement. The day-of-the-dead style mural was painted on Soto over six weekends by local…

A weird message popped up in my Facebook feed the other week with a friend saying his cat was a vegan. My first thought was ‘I better reply and tell him that’s impossible’ and my second thought was ‘I should probably research that first’. Nathan Verney says he decided to put his cat Luna—a rescue…

Pull your  head in I THINK the big blue head on the City of Vincent lawn is very symbolic of its narcissistic view. The council needs to stop with its self-promotion and return to its core function of providing the basic services expected of a local government. The Perth Voice (April 20, 2013) provides two…

A WALL mural that took six weekends to paint will be removed because the new tenants don’t like it. The mural was painted on the side of Highgate’s Soto Espresso by local artists Konfucius, Destroy and Idol. They’d donated their time and materials, with Vincent city council kicking in $1000. But Soto closed after going…