Perth Voice Interactive

HIGHGATE primary school kids, staff and parents are campaigning for a better playspace to replace a sun-scorched square that’s “boring, crowded and heavy on the bitumen”.

School board chair Tanya Sim says the school has capacity issues from its growing inner-city population, and it needs to better utilise the small space they have.

Numbers are exploding, from 600 this year to 800 next year, with more families moving into new developments.

“There’s a lot of presure on all primary schools, but particularly an inner-city school with apartments going up there’s a real need for outdoor spaces for children to play in,” Ms Sim says. “Because we are landlocked and cramped we really need to make the most of the space.”

Desperate for more space the school community’s turned to the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, which is running the My Park Rules competition. Finalists in each state get a landscape architect to reimagine their space, and the national winner gets it built.

The kids weighed in on what they wanted for the park, and ideas include

• ”tunnels, bridges, caves, forts”;

• ”lots of trees, a tree house, a flying fox!”;

• ”somewhere to hide, soemwhere to climb”;

• ”skate park, parkour, trampolines!”;

• ”something modern, but not sci fi modern.”;

• ”nature play, water, an art area”;

• ”somewhere we can all connect.”

Ms Sim says with so little space, long-term expert planning is vital.

Locals are encouraged to hop online and vote: “We just need people to go to myparkrules.com.au and search for Highgate primary.”

by DAVID BELL

STAMPING out crime along Maylands’ Eighth Avenue shopping strip may be as simple as tweaking the street’s design, a Curtin University researcher says.

Researcher Paul Cozens and colleague Courtney Babb, an urban planning expert, will soon talk to local traders and collect information on when, where and what kind of anti-social behaviour occurs on the street.

They will also observe comings and goings, and plan on having a chat to local police.

Collated data will be used to determine what needs to be done to make the area safer and more vibrant.

Dr Cozens says common hotspots for crime on retail strips are arches, alcoves, places with a confusing purpose, under-utilised areas and where there is poor surveillance (although, he says he’s not a fan of CCTV).

“It will start as an investigation into what the problems are,” Dr Cozens says.

He says it’s important to note the aim of the study—a collaboration with Liz Lennon at Focused Solutions, an organisation helping people to create better places to live and work—isn’t to push anti-social people out to another area.

Instead, he says, suggested changes to the streetscape will encourage a positive change and engage those people.

It will be the first time Dr Cozens will study existing structures—he’s used to working on development proposals such as the WA government’s Perth City Link reconnecting the CBD with Northbridge.

The study has been prompted by Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker who says traders and residents have complained to her about loitering and crime along the strip.

Bayswater police failed to respond to Voice questions about crime rates by our deadline.

Dr Cozen’s book on “designing out crime”—Think Crime! Using Evidence, Theory and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design for Planning Safer Cities (2014)—can be found at praxiseducation.com.

by EMMIE DOWLING

JUST months ago WA councils — including the City of Perth — rejected transparency suggestions from Vincent mayor John Carey.

Now, the Barnett government plans to write similar measures into the City of Perth Act.

Mr Carey says “they’re being dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century”.

At this year’s WA local government association conference he’d asked councils to sign up to transparency reforms including an online gift register where any ratepayer could see what freebies had been given, along with reports of all travel by councillors and staff.

It went over like a lead balloon, with Perth delegate Rob Butler (ousted in the recent election, shortly after it was revealed he hadn’t declared a trip to Malacca paid for by the Malaysian government) amongst the critics. When we asked lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi what she thought she ducked the question.

Now, the Barnett government has agreed to Labor’s plans to stuff more accountability into the City of Perth Act. The new provisions require councillors to disclose all gifts or travel within 10 days to be put into an online register, and come after Ms Scaffidi failed to declare a $50,000 trip to the Beijing Olympics paid for by BHP Billiton, despite the company having business with the city.

Last time the Voice asked to see Perth councillors’ annual returns (which record gifts) we were told by CEO Gary Stevenson to lodge an FOI request—a lengthy and expensive process compared to clicking a few buttons online.

Mr Carey says “this is a major win for the City of Vincent advocacy and campaign to bring in greater transparency and accountability across the sector.

“The City of Perth [delegates], as we know, voted against the package reforms despite everything that’s happened with the recent crisis at the City, there’s been no online gifts register, they continue this smokescreen …that says the current act is adequate and the current procedures are adequate.

“I get the sense that some local governments are embarassed by the decision about how they spend their money, about which councillors are sent overseas.”

Mr Carey says they’re pressing forward with an alliance of councils who are down with his reforms, including Victoria Park and Bassendean.

Meanwhile Vincent council’s gift register is online. The most recent item was two bottles of wine, total value $28, gifted to the mayor by the Square Dance Association of WA for opening its 37th state convention at the Loftus Recreation Centre.

by DAVID BELL

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CORRECTION: Last week we reported Vincent councillor Ros Harley was the only one who wanted fully protected bike lanes the whole length of the new Bulwer Street strip. Three people have now let us know that councillors Matt Buckels and Dan Loden were keen on them too, for the record. 

BAYSWATER councillor Alan Radford says ratepayers should chip in when it comes to beautifying local streets.

Cr Radford told last week’s council meeting he remembered when it was common for residents to help with projects like community gardens.

“People took ownership and if someone came along to ruin it, they’d be the first ones to point out how they slaved away to make it,” Cr Radford told councillors.

“Now they’d just call the rangers because they’d think it’s the council’s problem.”

His comments follow a council debate over whether to install planter boxes in Bayswater’s town centre. He hopes locals will chip in for the project if they want it, and hopes they will be proud enough to step in if, for example, a passer-by butts out a cigarette in a planter box.

The council voted to draw up a report investigating the planter boxes as well as “parklets”—makeshift dining areas on parking spaces—in all the city’s main shopping strips.

FINAL preparations are under way for next weekend’s Light Up Leederville Carnival, with Leederville Connect chair David Galloway saying they’re aiming for “idiosyncratic, eccentric and fun”.

He says they’re not looking to pack the streets with a massive rave party, but to keep it local, low-key, and a wee bit wacky.

“What makes our carnival different is it has a strong local focus. Our vision is something that is high quality, eccentric, fun, family but funky.

“We’ve reduced the footprint, we’re moving it later in the day and towards the evening that Oxford and Newcastle Street intersection is turning into a major celebration.”

He says it’s not an ideal event for a pack of blokes to come along to drink a skinful and cause trouble: “The idea is come along, enjoy Leederville for what it is.”

It’s on Sunday December 6 from noon, wrapping up at 9pm with the lights and fireworks but with a few of the local venues putting on afterparties if you’ve got the Monday off.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER train station looks like being a key plank in WA Labor’s campaign against the Barnett government.

The station is the first stop on the new Forrestfield-Airport Link project, but is to be largely ignored during the $2 billion rollout.

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says the plan to only upgrade disability access isn’t enough. She says all options for rail in the Maylands/Bayswater area are on Labor’s table as part of its Metronet project, and will be discussed with the community at a public meeting at The Rise from 6pm on Monday, November 30.

But don’t expect any promises or concrete plans for an underground station—which the community group Baysie Rollers is campaigning for—before budget time next year, Ms Baker says.

“We’re consulting,” she says. “What that plan will look like is up to the community and then we’ll have to weigh up our options.”

Options include a crossover where the tracks meet Caledonian Avenue.

The Voice reported this month the government was unlikely to give the station a significant upgrade, with WA transport minister Dean Nalder saying it didn’t have the budget or flexibility to accommodate last-minute changes.

Work at Bayswater is not expected to start until 2019. Funding for Labor’s Metronet will rely heavily on federal funding.

by EMMIE DOWLING