Perth Voice Interactive

TWO years ago any restaurateur wanting to go alfresco on Vincent’s footpaths had to negotiate a red tape obstacle course and pay for the pleasure.

The council was raking in $150,000 a year in fees, but the cost and approval process was deterring some businesses from bothering.

As of this week the council’s letting restaurant owners apply for an alfresco license online, reducing the approval time from about 10 days to ten minutes.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole says the city’s been focusing on cutting red tape for businesses.

“In 2016 we made alfresco permits free and now we’re launching a quick and simple online system that provides businesses with approval in minutes,” she says.

“To our knowledge, no other local government in WA has done this and we can’t wait to see the positive impact this will have on our local economy and in making Vincent an even more dynamic place to visit and shop.”

All the businesses need is current liability insurance, and to make sure they leave enough clear space for pedestrians to walk past.

Painless

Mathew Rowe, co-owner of new cafe Fields of Vincent at 135 Scarborough Beach Road, gave the new system a whirl this week.

“It was a seamless process,” he said, noting it took under 10 minutes.

“I thought the whole system was really good.”

He says with a new business a yearly fee can be a pain, so was pleasantly surprised that he didn’t have to pay a fee, and that his approval arrived in his inbox minutes after applying.

The system’s live now at http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/online-permits

Making administration easier for businesses has been a trend in the past couple of years as local governments try to shed their overly-bureaucratic image: Bayswater council also used to charge for alfresco ($26.50 for every chair per year) and likewise scrapped it in 2016.

by DAVID BELL

TERRORISTS could exploit a four-metre gap between bollards at Perth Arena and plough into crowds with a large vehicle, a state government inquiry has found.

The inquiry into protection of crowded places from terrorist acts, led by the justice standing committee, grilled Perth city council last week on it’s anti-terrorist measures, and flagged the arena bollards on Wellington Street.

“We have had discussions with the arena,” council CEO Martin Mileham says.

“They have access requirements and there is a risk profile.

“Obviously, if it was completely 100 per cent risk averse, we would be putting bollards up at every edge, and we have not.”

Other vulnerable public areas highlighted by the committee included Kings Park, Council House, CBD malls, Elizabeth Quay and Perth Arena.

Emergency

The council’s director of commercial and community services Rebecca Moore said that while the council may be responsible for the surrounding roads, the venues are managed by other entities, like the state government, metropolitan redevelopment authority or VenuesWest.

She said in the wake of Sydney’s Lindt Cafe siege in 2014, the city had worked with state services to overhaul its emergency management plans, and metal bollards had been installed to protect areas like Hay Street mall from “hostile vehicles”.

“We actually have a very robust piece and we worked through our arrangements with them,” she said.

“We are currently working on updating our Perth city evacuation plan so that if we need to, we have those in place.

“We are aware that we actually operate probably under a lower threat compared to most of the other large cities—Sydney, Melbourne and places like that.”

by EMILEE NEESON

PLANS are afoot to spend $7.7 million on restoring the old Maylands Brickworks, but it’ll likely involve a substantial residential development.

The 1927 brickworks, which have been closed for 30-odd years, is owned by the City of Bayswater and is state heritage listed, with the only remaining ‘Hoffman Kiln’ in WA (there was another, but it was destroyed during the 1968 earthquake).

The state heritage department has put together four tentative plans and wants input and ideas from the community.

Three of the plans involve building 68 new dwellings and selling them to fund the works, meaning there’ll be no cost to Bayswater council.

The four concept plans are:

• Residential/mixed use adaption of the brickworks, plus new residential buildings along the east side;

• Residential/mixed use and recreation adaption of the brickworks plus a new residential development on the southern carpark;

• Relocating the Maylands golf course clubhouse into the brickworks and building the apartments on the southern carpark;

• Move the golf clubhouse to the brickworks along with some other recreational stuff, but don’t build any new houses. But with no residential sell-off that leaves a hole in the budget.

Low impact

Ward councillor Elli Petersen-Pik went along to the first information session on Saturday and says “most people that I spoke to on the day understood that this project is a great opportunity to preserve the historic building and open it up for some kind of community use.

“I was also pleased to see that many recognised that restoring the building, the drying shed and the pugmill would require significant funding, which is the biggest challenge for this project.”

The other ward councillor, Catherine Ehrhardt, wants any potential residential development to be low impact.

She says the city has more than 10 kilometres of foreshore and doesn’t want this project to set a precedent that’ll lead to apartments all along the riverfront, like the other side of the Swan.

“My biggest fear…is that eventually it’ll look like Rivervale.”

“When I stand down near the golf club or the police academy, I look across the river and see these jagged highrises across the water.

“I’m very supportive of density, but in my view it should be along main transport corridors: along Guildford Road and along train lines.”

She says she would prefer a low-impact option with about 12 premium housing sites, which would have less impact on the area.

There’s a final information session at the Maylands Brickworks on February 26, 5pm – 7pm, and the feedback period runs until March 16, and you can read the concept plans and have a say at engage.bayswater.wa.gov.au

The state heritage council will then put together a final concept plan, scheduled to be voted on by Bayswater councillors in mid-2018.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH city council CEO Martin Mileham went on indefinite personal leave this week after discovering he’d been the subject of a secret internal investigation.

Nicknamed Project Percy, the probe found Mr Mileham had “no case to answer,” but lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi says the fallout has caused the CEO enormous anxiety which has led to him taking time off for his health.

Mr Mileham has written to the council alleging the secrecy made the investigation a breach of the terms of his contract.

The probe was carried out while Jemma Green was acting lord mayor. Cr Green released a statement this week saying it was sparked after she received “information from a reputable property dealer as to the conduct of certain people within the City of Perth including the City of Perth, CEO, Mr Martin Mileham”.

Cr Green says she was conscious the allegations had the potential to damage reputations, so tried to deal with the issue with “the utmost care and discretion”. She sought the advice of the city’s head of governance, Mark Ridgwell, and law firm Herbert Smith Freehills was retained to provide advice on whether she was obliged to report the allegations.

But the Voice has been told by a source close to council that while a couple of thousand dollars was approved for the advice, this ballooned into a $25,000 investigation.

Ms Scaffidi says the council has now asked its own legal advisors to investigate how the money was spent and she’s expecting to release more information when it comes in.

“This is clearly extremely concerning … this was a non-council endorsed investigation that was allowed to occur,” she told a press conference on Monday.

Cr Green says after receiving Herbert Smith Freehills’ advice that there weren’t grounds to suspect Mr Mileham of even minor misconduct, she did not pursue the matter further.

She says the CEO was given a copy of the legal advice on February 6.

“I regret that the matter has become public,” she says, blaming a leak from a fellow councillor or staff member for the issue becoming public.

Local government minister David Templeman says the WA local government department will have to look into whether the city’s still functional.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH city council CEO Martin Mileham’s decision to take indefinite sick leave  comes just days after he attempted to crack down on councillors speaking to city staff.

In report at last Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting, he’d suggested bringing the city’s policies in line with the Local Government Act so any communications would have to go through his office.

Mr Mileham wrote that he had a legal requirement under the Occupational Safety and Health Act to provide a safe workplace for employees. He was also required to adopt measures to prevent staff being bullied, including shielding them from  “aggressive, rude or repetitive” communications.

“The CEO—not the council or any individual elected member—has the responsibility and power in respect of administration matters, including the day-to-day management of the city’s operations,” he wrote after receiving legal advice on the issue.

The city’s current policy allows councillors to talk to staff down to a manager’s level, which is inconsistent with the Act.

Mr Mileham says this means the policy exceeds its “lawful powers” and it should be revoked at the earliest opportunity. Even before then it should be ignored as “invalid and unenforceable”.

When the item came up, Cr Reece Harley moved to have the issue referred back to the city’s Finance and Administration Committee. The only vote against that was lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi who wanted it dealt with on the night.

I AM writing to express my grave concerns about the federal government’s proposed Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017.

This bill will have a huge impact on civil society, forcing charities and grassroots organisations to join a government register and follow complex new rules or members could face 10 years in prison. Also, this bill only applies to civil society and allows corporations and the fossil fuel lobby to continue business as usual.

It is clear that this is not legislation that serves the interests of the Australian community.

To the contrary, it serves the vested interests of corporations and primarily aims to undermine our democratic right as citizens to protest destructive development ventures, and our duty to protect both people and place.

This proposed legislation intends to open the gates for corporate ventures that will see further and unfettered environmental destruction, the invasion of Indigenous and farming lands, a threat to our water limited water supplies, and significantly contribute to growing global warming dangers (to name but a few serious issues).

At the same time, it strategically intends to undermine our capacity and democratic right to challenge such inequities and iniquities.

It is a no-brainer that this pernicious attempt by the federal government to undermine our democratic right to protect and protest must be stopped.

Brian Spittles
Bedford Rd, Ardross