CRIMEFIGHTING robots used to patrol Singapore’s streets could be brought to Stirling under a plan by councillor Joe Ferrante. In 2021 Singapore ran a short trial of four-wheeled robots named “Xavier” patrolling streets. They were armed with a 360-degree camera and a two-way communicator so human operators could remotely talk to nearby people. Their video…

PLAN to restrict the unfettered spread of new vape or smoke shops was unanimously endorsed by Bayswater councillors this week, with the rule now off to the state government for a final decision. The rule change would mean cigar stores, shisha bars, or shops that sell “smoking related implements” would be classed as a “restricted…

A PRICEY tree planting program for Yokine’s Flinders Street strip will cost an estimated $6,500 per tree and comes with a traffic engineer’s warning it could be dangerous. Flinders Street is pretty bare and back in mid-2022 ward councillors Suzanne Migdale and Joe Ferrante requested more trees along the strip.  Nearly $200,000 was set aside…

A NEW name in sports writing has caused huge upset in British and North American media markets in recent years, and Australia could be in their sights. The Athletic was founded in 2016 as a subscription-only sports news site, and within two years had gutted American legacy media newsrooms through a robust recruitment campaign targeting…

VINCENT mayor Emma Cole has announced she’ll stand down come the end of her term in October. Ms Cole was first elected as a councillor in 2013, then as mayor in 2017.  At the July 25 council meeting Ms Cole announced that after 10 years in local government she was looking forward to more evenings…

WITH a surfeit of inner suburban land devoted to golf, a shortage of public parks, and newly built houses being hit by errant golf balls, Bayswater council is considering “alternative uses” for its 10.1 hectares of land at Embleton Golf Course. In the past decade cities across Australia have increasingly debated whether they need so…

MASSIVE changes to the face of Leederville are on the horizon with a proposal to transform two sprawling carparks into major mixed-use developments between 10 and 18 storeys tall.  Amid Leederville’s small bars and niche retailers, some 14,600sqm of the town centre is taken up by 464 ground-level parking bays split across carparks at Frame…

IT’S always cold, often wet, and costs $40 a head, but the mid-winter Kings Park’s Lightscape light show has booked out. It’s been so popular scalpers have been flogging tickets online, prompting the Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority to warn people to beware of ticket reselling websites “to avoid being scammed”. After lighting up canopies…

BAYSWATER councillors will have to declare any community social media pages run by themselves or their spouses, in an effort to deter “inappropriate usage of community social media platforms for political purposes”. The motion by Cr Elli Petersen-Pik narrowly won majority support at the July 25 meeting with support from mayor Filomena Piffaretti and Crs…

IT’S like talking to a post, but this one talks back: A new artificially intelligent chat-bot named Ainsley wants to talk to Stirling locals about what they need in their neighbourhoods. Stirling council’s introduced a WA-first trial installing signs at 42 locations, bearing a visual code that’s detected by smartphone cameras and opens up a…