Perth Voice Interactive

RIGHT now any business owner wanting to liven up their footpath with a pot plant and a bench within the City of Vincent must apply for a licence and pay $73 a year.

Likewise, setting up an outdoor eating area comes with a stack of paperwork and fees.

Mayor John Carey wants that to change: he says it should be easier for traders to liven up the place without jumping through hoops: “We want to make it easier for small independent businesses to contribute to the great feel they give to our streets, and one of the ways is cutting red tape for alfresco and display seating,” he says. “We have a ridiculous situation at the moment, where if a business wants to beautify a footpath and put a bench out with some pot plants, then they’d have to pay $73 ever year, and we’d send out rangers to look at where they’re putting it.

“This is a waste of resources, a waste of time, and it’s red tape.

“It’s not just about cafes, but plants and seating outside other business. I’m sure people have gone to Paris, and any kind of shop has seats outside for people to sit around and watch the world go by.”

The council collects a tidy $130,000 a year from such fees, but it all goes back into the cost of policing compliance.

Nino La Verghetta runs Pappagallo cafe pizzeria on Oxford Street. He had to wait months to get cafe blinds up.

“There’s so many rules,” he says, and the problem is “not just the money, but the time”.

He reckons slashing the rules is “fantastic I think! That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Where we’re coming from in Italy, it’s all about that, because they have a small [space inside the shop], especially with high rents, it’s easy for us to do business on the footpath.” The law will take at least a year to come into force.

by DAVID BELL

APPROVAL of a seven-storey apartment block in King William Street faces a legal challenge from Bayswater city council.

The 27-unit block was controversially approved by the local development assessments panel.

In a 5-4 vote the council decided Tuesday to seek legal advice regarding an appeal.

Locals are split on the project.

An action group opposed to the project says the area has a five-storey limit and trying to squeeze seven storeys into the area “is just too much”.

Geraldine Pillinger from lobby group Bayswater Deserves Better says, “it will dwarf the other buildings in the town centre.

“It’s jut not going to blend in.

“This is about developers trying to make as much money as they can. It’s not for the community, it’s for them.”

She says her group gathered 1000 signatures on a petition to stop the development and that numerous authorities failed to adhere to the rules.

But Paul Shanahan from Future Bayswater welcomes the project’s approval and is concerned the council’s intention to challenge it will send the wrong message to investors.

“Bayswater is a wonderful place. There’s so much potential,” he says.

“We really hope the council doesn’t go down that path.”

He says local professionals are concerned developers may get the message, “it’s too hard to do business here”.

“It all comes down to taste,” Mr Shanahan says.

“I’m no architect, town planer or artist, but it’s a so much-needed development. Its bulk will be 20 metres, there’s no difference if it’s five or seven storeys. We are not concerned. This is what the area needs and we hope it’s the first of a few.”

The metropolitan central joint development assessments panel rejected an original proposal in October last year for non-compliance with height, facade and parking requirements but flagged that a redesign would see it reconsider that decision, which it now has. Pete Adams from Yolk property group says his company is ‘in the midst of completely updating development imagery’ and will launch the new project soon.

by MARTA  PASCUAL JUANOLA

A DOZEN activists from environmental group 350 Perth unexpectedly showed up to Vincent’s elected member briefing session this week, imploring councillors to pull council investments out of coal-supporting portfolios.

Named for the target of CO2 in the atmosphere of 350ppm needed to preserve the biosphere, group spokesperson Rachel Bott said certain banks were contributing to fossil fuel industries.

“I would prefer my rates are preferenced toward banks that do not invest in fossil fuels,” she said.

“Australia’s four big banks are continuing to invest in fossil fuels despite embracing a two-degree target for global warming: Commonwealth, Westpac, ANZ and NAB.”

She said it’s smart for the planet and for the bottom line to invest in cleaner operators, keeping in mind the city’s own policies to handle ratepayer money wisely.

“Intense exposure to fossil fuels is a worry for both climate change and the risk of stranded assets… ANZ is absorbing a bigger-than-expected loss as a result of lending to the mining industry.”

She quoted 350 founder Bill McKibben who said, “if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage”.

Vincent CEO Len Kosova says “it is something the administration is prepared to look into a little further. We’re aware of some other local governments who are currently reviewing that revised policy approach to managing their investments.

“Some of the conditions and criteria mentioned by Rachel earlier are probably worth taking into account in assessing the community is no worse off as a result of that investment strategy.”

LAST week’s front page story “Gran sues over asbestos mess” contained several inaccuracies. Dawn Taylor was not fined $12,000 by Bayswater council, but was issued a work order to clean the mess left by others who removed a shed from a property she was managing. She does faces penalties if she doesn’t comply but they are significantly lower than what was published.

Ms Taylor was quoted calling council staff idiots for approving demolition without checking she’d given permission: while angry about that decision, Ms Taylor says the description had been aimed at whomever it was who left uncovered asbestos in the backyard, as well as the generally increasing number of idiots “everywhere”.

Ms Taylor’s son Neil returned from Queensland several years ago, not “recently” as we’d reported (but had not been living at the Aughton Street house). The Voice apologises to readers for the errors.

PERTH city council rangers have again descended on Matagarup/Heirisson Island, a police escort in tow, to issue fines.

The raid has been described as “revenge” for campers taking legal action against the council over damage and disappearance of confiscated goods.

What started as a protest camp last year has more recently become a sanctuary for homeless people, who say they feel safer on the island than on city streets.

Rangers visited Tuesday afternoon—the first time they’d taken police since August last year when they confiscated camping gear in an effort to uproot “illegal camping”.

One homeless family was issued a $500 fine over its broken down van.

WA Labor senator Sue Lines is calling on the council to cancel the fine.

“The City of Perth has fined a homeless family of seven people (two adults and five very young children) sheltering on Matagarup (Heirisson Island) $500 because their van, the family’s only asset, is broken down and immovable parked at the island,” Senator Lines posted online.

“I will write to the City of Perth requesting that the fine be withdrawn. A family who is homeless has no ability to pay a fine.”

The PCC’s well-paid media unit is maintaining its long-standing policy of silence on controversial issues: senior media officer Michael Holland is now failing to even acknowledge queries (he has not communicated with the Perth Voice in over two months).

Nyoongar man Clinton Pryor has been helping homeless people on the island and headed down when he heard police and rangers were there.

“It’s revenge tactics,” he says of Tuesday’s raid, “because we’re taking them to court for compensation for the raids from last year.”

The council held onto confiscated goods long after the legal seven-day limit, and now owners have finally been allowed to inspect their impounded goods they’ve discovered much of it is either missing or mouldy. Several are taking the council to court for compensation.

Mr Pryor first got involved a little over a year ago.

“I was sitting at home and I’d seen about the forced closures of communities, and I thought something needed to be done.”

He went down to the Matagarup First Nations Refugee Camp, set up by Bella Bropho and fellow activists to protest the closures. Since then it’s become a refuge for homeless people.

“After that day, I felt better,” Mr Pryor says.

“I started fighting for the communities and homeless people. It’s changed my life, it’s changed how I think.”

He says people on the island won’t be scared off by the council’s tactics: “The people are going to stick around. We told them not to give up. They were frightened but we told them to stick their ground.”

He’s organising a free Matagarup Family Day and Concert this Saturday, April 2, to raise awareness about community closures and homelessness, with a corroboree, bands, food vans and kids stuff. It’s on 10am to 7pm.

by DAVID BELL