Perth Voice Interactive

THE popular but declining Maylands Waterland needs a facelift and Bayswater councillor Dan Bull wants the Barnett government and private investors to help bear the cost.

He told colleagues last week the 40-odd-year-old park is enjoyed by thousands who live outside the municipality, so ratepayers shouldn’t be expected to bear the cost themselves. “The state government should pitch in,” he said. “We have an argument to go to big business with this.”

Cr Sally Palmer suggested flogging naming rights, such as calling it ”Bunnings Park”.

Attendance has fallen: in 2013 there were 42,500 visitors. The following year it was 32,200. Over the past five years there have been 3000 fewer birthday parties.

Any upgrade to the pay-to-enter park will have to compete with free-to-use water play areas such as Forrest Chase in the CBD and Hyde Park.

“In addition, there has been a number of new large, exciting, privately operated water parks built across the metropolitan area,” a council report states.

“Recent new water parks include Outback Splash in Bullsbrook and the Xscape pop-up water park at Belmont Park. While these parks attract a reasonable entry fee, these parks offer families a major outing for children of all ages and offer substantially more exciting options for children.”

Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer visited the centre this week and found many kids from outside the district enjoying the dag end of summer.

by EMMIE DOWLING

WA’s biggest council concedes it can’t reach its tree canopy target because developers are axing mature trees faster than it can afford to plant replacements.

Stirling says it faces spending $16.3 million every year to have any hope of achieving its 18 per cent canopy target by 2030 (coverage now is 12.7 per cent). That’s about $245 million to plant 330,000 mature trees at the cost of $500-$800 per plant.

The actual spend now is about $5.2 million a year for 7000 mature trees and the “City of Stirling only has the capacity to plant a maximum of 10,000 trees each year”, states a council report tabled this week.

“The city would need to plant 22,000 trees each year on public land to reach 18 per cent canopy cover by 2030 in order to offset the loss of tree cover as a result of development on private property,” the council report states.

It also states that if the council keeps losing trees at the current rate, about 3800 mature trees will be lost across the city every year.

The cost to ratepayers for the loss of trees on private land is estimated at $6 million per year.

The news comes as the council considers options to turn the situation around in its draft “trees and development” planning policy, which may aim to preserve existing trees on private land by adding conditions on development approvals.

Four options were tabled: the first is a “business as usual” policy, meaning the average residential canopy cover will drop by 5.2 per cent in 15 years.

The second — which the committee has recommended be endorsed following community consultation — requires developers to retain on-site trees at the rate of one tree per 500sqm and development applicants must pay for a verge tree.

The third allows developers to pay an “off-set” fee if they don’t want to plant a tree. The fourth, which community action group Stirling Urban Tree Network is pushing for, prescribes “comprehensive tree protection”.

The last option includes a “significant tree register” where large trees on private property would be protected, banning the removal of registered trees except on rare occasions under special circumstances.

Stirling Urban Tree Network convenor Leisha Jack says it wants to work with the council to develop the policy because she’s “not really” happy with option two.

“Anything taller than 2m should require some sort of approval, even for pruning trees,” she says.

“We need to preserve what we’re got remaining because the urban heat island effect is dangerous. Heat kills. All the new trees that are going to be planted won’t be any good for the canopy for another 20 years.”

by EMMIE DOWLING

POLICE are now investigating the incident where a Swan Taxis driver allegedly defecated on a Leederville verge last Tuesday morning.

The WA transport department has suspended its own investigation “in relation to a potential offence for driver misconduct” and is now assisting the police.

Our source who witnessed the squat and release confirms police have been in touch, and say they’ll be looking over cab footage and GPS logs to verify claims. The department says “the taxi company involved is also conducting its own independent investigation”.

Meanwhile our wee tale last week about a poo on a Leederville verge went global, featuring on the brilliantly droll UK-based Angry People in Local Newspapers Facebook page. Usually featuring sullen Poms scowling while they point at a crack in a pavement, this week our front page graced its hall of shame, posted with the sarcy comment “It’s all going off in Australia tonight”.

Australia’s Media Watch also posted our story on its Facebook page, stating “The Perth Voice takes crap front pages to a new level with this stinker”.

Commenter Ash Peake came to our defence, commenting: “This [is] actually far more intellectually stimulating than ‘The West Australian’.”

Another, Peter Dowling, said “I’m surprised Rupert hasn’t made a bid for this paper!!! Seems right up his alley”.

In a statement that Swan Taxis refused to attribute to an actual human being, the company says: “Based on our initial investigation, the driver concerned was suffering from a severe case of food poisoning.

“Prior to the incident, he had vomited, felt feverish with unbearable pain in his stomach. As part of our procedure, the driver will be required to appear before our disciplinary tribunal.

“We are also working closely with City of Vincent and Department of Transport in resolving this matter.”

Doesn’t really explain why he came pre-armed with a bog roll, but we’ll leave that to the plods.

by DAVID BELL

“IT’S so quiet out there right now, you can’t make a living out of it.”

Taxi driver Phil McGree is fed up. He says his industry’s going down the toilet, and it’s not helped by drivers who refuse to use one.

“I’ve been driving taxis since 2008,” he says. “The industry is stuffed—it’s full of idiots, and between the mining downturn and Uber, my livelihood has pretty much ended.”

He made $122 Tuesday night last week, minus $20 for LPG.  “Quite frankly, I hate my lifestyle at the moment, and hate my job. My industry and lifestyle has been destroyed by people applying third-world conduct and attitudes to a first-world country. I dread getting in my taxi. It’s like walking to my own execution each time.”

He reckons the rot set in when too many taxi plates were issued during the mining boom. The job opened up to just about anyone and driver standards dropped markedly.

He says he was lucky not to purchase plates, instead investing spare cash in shares. Other owner-drivers he knows are stuck with plates they might have bought for $300,000, but which are now worth half that, at best.

One driver he knows in that situation is “stuck”. “He can’t sell the plate unless he also gives up his house. Imagine spending every day of your life facing fnancial oblivion. That driver is now close to suicide. He thinks of it daily. What sort of lifestyle is that? What the bloody hell are we doing here?

“The state government has made it clear that it won’t offer compensation. The main reason for the sudden devaluation of taxi plates is Uber.

“Uber is illegal. It’s not a grey area, it’s not vague… the state government has chosen to ignore its own regulation and is turning a blind eye to Uber.”

He says he has little faith the Swan Taxis tribunal will properly investigate the verge poo incident (Voice, March 5, 2016). “All the driver has to do is convince them that it was some sort of medical emergency and he couldn’t wait any longer.

“I’d like to see the department of transport cancel his taxi driver’s licence. Such a disgusting and blatant act deserves that. But no, bugger-all will be done about it. Instead my industry continues to go down further. The Titanic had better prospects. Personally, I’ll be getting out of it in the near future. Like every other taxi driver, my life is a misery these days. There is no future for me.”

by DAVID BELL

MORE cultural training is needed to stop incidents such as taxi drivers pooing on verges, says WA Taxi Industry Forum chair Howard Lance.

Following our article last week about a taxi driver having a poo on a Leederville verge, despite a toilet being just 30m away, Mr Lance got in touch to say he’s heard many complaints stemming from a lack of awareness about Australian culture.

Usually these don’t involve using the verge as a toilet, but he cited unacceptable hygiene standards, unclean cabs, and drivers talking on headsets during entire trips as areas requiring training.

“Some of the industry recognises the problems, but trying to get anything to change is very difficult,” he says.

“We’ve been pushing for better training for years but the companies are reluctant.”

He says TIFWA approached the WA transport department to “ask for money to run a program to make immigrant drivers more aware of our cultural norms but as usual it fell on deaf ears”.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT mayor John Carey confirmed this week he will run as Labor’s candidate for the seat of Perth at the next state election.

If elected — the seat is held by popular Liberal MP Eleni Evangel on a 2.8 per cent margin — a by-election will be held to replace him as mayor.

Despite weeks of speculation he was the hot pick for Labor, he says he only made up his mind over the past few days: in the end coming to the conclusion he could achieve more for the community at the state level.

“This is the toughest decision, but I say this genuinely: week in, week out there have been critical issues we’re facing that as mayor I could not address at the root of the cause. Traffic, rat-running, speeding, it all relates to too many cars on our road and we do not have a coherent plan for public transport in Perth.”

Mr Carey intends holding a blowtorch to the Barnett government’s belly over its failure to deliver the oft-promised MAX light rail down North Perth’s Fitzgerald Street.

“We need a plan for the next decade,” Mr Carey says.

“Are we getting light rail or not? People want a clear vision that we stick to.”

Formerly a Labor environmental policy adviser, Mr Carey has been in the ALP for 12 years. The-then Vincent councillor ran for mayor in 2013 when Alannah MacTiernan resigned to run for federal parliament. In October he was re-elected with more than 80 per cent of the vote.

Mr Carey pledges he will not be a party machine automaton, and will keep pushing for transparency in government, just as he has at the local government level.

“I’ll keep being a straight shooter and tell it like it is,” he says, adding he doesn’t care, “if I’m seen as a maverick”.

Ms Evangel defeated Labor’s John Hyde — another former Vincent mayor — to take Perth in 2013: the seat was long-regarded as a “jewel in the crown” for the ALP and it is keen to get it back.

Reclaiming Perth is regarded as vital if Mark McGowan is to have any chance of becoming premier at the next election.

by DAVID BELL