Perth Voice Interactive

AN austere budget’s been passed by Vincent council with a steep 7.6 per cent rate rise and the end of the beloved free hour in council carparks. 

The council’s trying to catch up on having frozen rates during the covid era, wants to pay off old debt, plans to put aside money for underground power, and needs to keep creaky assets in acceptable condition.

With the council facing inflation and rising costs like everyone else, that makes for a 7.6 per cent rate rise which has predictably been unpopular with the public who commented on the budget: 71 per cent opposed the increase during consultation. 

At the July 5 budget meeting mayor Emma Cole said “this has been the hardest budget I’ve ever sat on in terms of the decisions that we have to make.

“I wake up at 4am in the morning thinking about the budget. I’ve been thinking about this budget for a long time, and one of the drivers for me is to leave the City of Vincent in a better place than when I came to this council.”

Ms Cole said the council now has a solid long term financial plan, they plan capital works four years ahead, and can more responsibly maintain their assets.

The council’s also removed the free first hour in council carparks and will now charge $1, a measure intended to get more cash in from parking fees rather than having to raise rates even higher than 7.6 per cent. Former councillor Dudley Maier pointed out that commercial ratepayers face an even stiffer increase than residents this year, which he calculated to be an effective increase of 20.9 per cent to business rates.

That’s because the council stopped collecting waste from businesses last year due to the switch to FOGO. The first year the council gave businesses a $520 rebate to make up for the lost service but this year there’s no relief. 

“I think the treatment of businesses is appalling,” Mr Maier told councillors. 

During the meeting there were no moves to ease the burden on businesses but Ms Cole noted the actual base rate-in-the-dollar charged to businesses was pretty low (and it’ll remain proportionately cheaper than what residential ratepayers pay).

Two of the new councillors elected in October 2021, Ross Ioppolo and Ron Alexander, suggested the council could keep the rates bill lower by not collecting so much revenue marked for projects they’d likely never start this financial year.

Every single year Vincent council, like many others, collects money for capital projects that they don’t actually get around to. Sometimes it’s because they run out of time, or don’t have the staff-power or materials, or because the project is stretched over multiple years. This year they carried forward about $5million of capital works projects from last year. 

Cr Ioppolo proposed lowering the amount of rates collected to bring it closer to what they could reasonably spend based on previous years: “I’m 99 per cent confident you’re not going to spend this money,” so they shouldn’t collect it this year, he argued.

“I’m not asking for any cuts in capital expenditure, I’m asking for deferment of things that we know we will not spend [on] this financial year.”

That proposal could’ve reduced the rates increase from 7.6 per cent to 4.5 per cent.

Cr Alexander agreed with the plan saying this was a tough year for people and it didn’t make sense to collect rates that’d sit around not being spent. 

But other councillors were satisfied by Vincent admin’s assurances they could get the work done and that they still needed to collect cash to get the ball rolling on future years’ projects, and Cr Ioppolo’s amendment was lost. 

by DAVID BELL

A LONG-dormant corner of Maylands will be turned into a $40million aged care facility, and the iconic heritage-listed servo out front will be preserved and turned into an activity room.

Built in 1931 and closed nearly 10 years ago, Williamson’s Motor House on Guildford Road is heritage listed for its rare Mediterranean influences and Moorish themes which reference the 13th century Islamic fortress Alhambra in Spain. The state heritage council says “this place is a fine example of a theme approach to service stations, which was once much more common and is now something of a rarity”.

Empty and suffering from graffiti taggers for close to a decade, it’ll now have new life with a six-storey aged care facility built behind it, unanimously approved by the joint development assessment panel on July 4

It’ll be operated by Craigcare Aged Homes and include a specialised memory support unit on the ground floor to cater for increasing numbers of people with dementia. 

The area has been identified as needing more accommodation for the rising elderly population, and the applicants say opening it “will enable current residents of Maylands and Bayswater to age-in-place” without having to move far from home.

CANDIDATES and voters using sham leases in council elections will be clamped down on as part of major new local government reforms intended to clean up messy and chaotic councils.

Local government minister John Carey this week announced the final package of the long-awaited reforms to the creaky 25-year-old Local Government Act 1995.

The reforms read like a remedy to what’s gone wrong at prominent councils that’ve been suspended over the past few years like the City of Perth and Canning, including:

• Introducing a new local government inspector to investigate and oversee complaints with the power of a standing inquiry, hoped to head off the need for suspensions by intervening before things get disastrous;

• Creating a new Local Government Conduct Panel that actually has some teeth to suspend councillors for up to three months, replacing the old standards panel which couldn’t do much beyond ordering councillors to apologise for breaching minor rules;

• Councillors who are suspended three times by either the conduct panel or the minister are disqualified from being an elected member for 10 years;

• An end to “sham leases” where someone creates a lease simply for the purpose of running for council or voting.

Sham leases have been an ongoing problem at Perth council, even after the 2020 Report of the Inquiry into the City of Perth revealed sham leases had been taken out by both council candidates and many voters — enough to have possibly tipped the election results in some years.

But even after that, at the 2020 election several voters were identified as having taken out a lease on a date after they’d applied to vote, an indicator of a sham lease. The WA Electoral Commission nevertheless allowed them to vote, and these new rules will prevent that by requiring a minimum lease period of 12 months before someone can nominate or vote, and it precludes very small sub-leases which were the source of many dodgy votes.

One change that’s caused some concern among sources that regularly inform the Voice on local government matters is a provision that allows council CEOs to declare a complainant as “vexatious”.

The provision’s rationale says “unfortunately, local government resources can become unreasonably diverted when a person makes repeated vexatious queries, especially after a local government has already provided a substantial response to the person’s query.

“It is proposed that if a person makes repeated complaints to a local government CEO that are vexatious, the CEO will have the power to decide that the complainant is being unreasonable, and that they will no longer respond.”

We’ve seen cases where residents with reasonable gripes have already been given the cold shoulder or refused further replies, prompting fears from a few of our sources that legitimate critics might be deemed vexatious.

The reform says vexatious complainants who think they’ve been wrongly tarred will be able to appeal to the inspector. The government plans to introduce legislation to enact the reforms to parliament by the end of the year.

THE State Treasury building will be transformed into an open artists and writer’s studio with a dual residency by artist Tessa MacKay and screenwriter and director Roderick MacKay.

For two weeks they’ll be taking over treasury’s “The Mark” venue, which overlooks Stirling Gardens in the Perth CBD, telling stories and chatting with the public while they create.

Ms MacKay’s residency comes while she’s at an artistic crossroads: She’s previously done hyper-realistic portraits like her 2019 Archibald finalist depiction of David Wenham (which will be exhibited at The Mark) and is now moving to natural landscapes and botanic still life works.

Mr Mackay, whose debut feature film The Furnace had its global premiere at the Venice Film Festival, will be working on his many existing screenplays.

They’ll be there for two weeks starting with a free meet and greet on August 1 at 5pm. 

THE kids loved the new Wellington Square playground as soon as it opened and now the adult experts have confirmed: Yes, it is fun, with the playground winning two awards at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture WA awards.

The intergenerational Noongar-influenced “Koolangka Koolangka Waabiny” (Children’s Children Playground) won the landscape award for playspaces and the people’s choice award. 

They also got two awards for the overall redevelopment of Wellington Square, which as part of the makeover was co-named Moort-ak Waadiny — ‘Searching for Family’ in recognition of 

its historical significance in commemorating the stolen generations and Sorry Day. 

Top of the class

ADC and the Warburton Group’s vision for the Perth Girls School site have been approved by DevelopmentWA.Girls School plan approved

‘The new Perth Girls School project design will celebrate the site’s rich and important Aborigi-nal and European cultural history’

DEVELOPMENT plans for the major mixed residential, cultural, and entertainment superhub at the old Perth Girls School site in East Perth have been approved by the state government’s DevelopmentWA authority. 

The $400m plan by developers ADC and the Warburton Group has been a long time in the making and first required about 360 unmarked graves to be exhumed from part of the block. 

That area was once part of the East Perth cemetery which closed in 1916 and was later developed into the school’s sports grounds, then was paved over to become a licensing centre. The remains have been reinterred at Karrakatta Cemetery. 

The approved application includes 742 residences across four towers including 100 affordable housing apartments. The wider site is proposed to host a microbrewery, restaurants, a supermarket, artsy offices, an art gallery, parks and performance spaces.

DevelopmentWA listed a few dozen conditions for approval, including that the final detailed designs fit in with the heritage elements of the area and that 

all works ensure “minimal” damage to the parts of the historic buildings that’ll be retained and refurbished.

The nitty gritty detailed design process now follows and the developers are looking to get it construction-ready by late 2023.

ADC Director Rod Hamersley said in his announcement of the approval: “The new Perth Girls School project design will celebrate the site’s rich and important Aboriginal and European cultural history and encourage more people, activity and diversity into East Perth.”

State Perth MP and lands minister John Carey put out a statement on the plans saying: 

“This is a fantastic redevelopment project that preserves some of the great aspects of the historic former Girls School, while delivering an injection of new social and affordable rentals, and providing a new cultural hub that will attract people from across Perth.”

The project’s qualified for a 50 per cent land tax concession because it includes ‘build-to-rent’ apartments, which will be rented out as affordable housing through a community housing provider for a bare minimum of 15 years.

Mr Carey said he hopes this project stands as a blueprint for more build-to-rent housing.

“The introduction of a build-to-rent housing model is a smart way of alleviating pressure on both private and social rental sectors whilst providing a viable solution to the housing affordability and supply equation.

“Perth is now starting to embrace build-to-rent living, and this project is the largest of its kind in WA to date, which will be a huge shot in the arm for this sector. 

“Mixing build‚Äìto-rent, social housing and affordable housing together in a well-designed, planned way is exactly what’s needed to create lively, sustainable and diverse communities.

by DAVID BELL

LABOR’S state planning minister Rita Saffioti will intervene in Perth council’s decision to reject a Northbridge homeless drop-in centre’s relocation to James Street.

At its May meeting Perth council rejected homeless service provider Ruah’s plan to move the Shenton Street centre a 270m walk away, so it could build a seven-storey women and children’s refuge on the site.

The move required the council to approve a “change of use” to turn the James Street building into a “community or cultural centre”, but it was rejected on the basis of threats to amenity and safety outlined by many objections from concerned locals who’d be the centre’s new neighbours.

Ruah appealed the decision to the State Administrative Tribunal but a day before the case’s preliminary hearing Ms Saffioti announced she would exercise her ministerial power to “call in” the matter and decide on the change of use herself.

Ms Saffioti told parliament on June 23: “Ruah has also written to me asking that I, as Minister for Planning, call in the application and that I determine that application for the change of use. I want to report today that I have agreed to determine the change of use application for that centre.”

The minister can only step in on SAT appeals if an application deals with issues of state or regional importance, and isn’t restricted to making decisions based on planning policy but can also consider the public interest. 

Ms Saffioti said: “We know that the issues surrounding homelessness are difficult, and they are difficult to manage throughout the community.

“However, it is important that we stay strong and make decisions that benefit the entire community, and in particular those who are at risk and who need the services. 

Strategic

“Without this decision, and without this process, not only would the drop-in centre for the homeless be impacted, but also the application and proposal to build a seven-storey new dedicated facility for family and domestic violence. 

“It is important that the overall package from the state government be considered from a strategic point of view.”

Submissions to Ms Saffioti are open to July 6.

At the June 28 Perth council meeting deputy lord mayor Di Bain said: “The City has engaged a specialist planning lawyer to assist with our submission”. It will also be forwarding more than 100 opposing statements from locals who originally objected to the move, and inviting them to make new submissions. 

Whatever her decision Ms Saffioti must provide reasons to the City of Perth and both houses of Parliament. 

If Ms Saffioti reverses the council’s decision it’ll be the second time they’ve been overruled over Ruah’s plans. 

In April, Ruah’s application to build the seven-storey women and children’s shelter that’ll be replacing the drop-in centre went to the joint development assessment panel. The project’s cost was stated as $15m so it’s exactly at the threshold where the state government rules deem the matter too significant to be decided by the council alone. 

The two councillors on the joint panel, Liam Gobbert and Catherine Lezer, voted against it after hearing residents’ concerns but they were overruled by the three panel members appointed by the state government.

by DAVID BELL