Perth Voice Interactive

DOZENS of Bayswater locals are fighting to save two century-old heritage buildings from demolition.

Resident Jacquie Kelly has launched a petition asking councillors to block plans for a seven-storey apartment complex at 9–11 King William Street.

The council approved demolition in February — requiring just the facade to be kept — but residents aren’t giving up.

“[Demolition] should not have been granted with so little consideration of heritage value or referral, and no public consultation,” says Ms Kelly, who failed last weekend in her attempt to be elected to the council’s north ward (Brent Fleeton took the spot, edging out incumbent Mike Anderton by 41 votes).

Ms Kelly says the proposed complex doesn’t suit the ”village” style of the city centre and sets a bad precedent.

Monica Main, who can see the site from her house, says people like the area for its old buildings.

“Why can’t we celebrate that?” she asks.

Both doomed buildings — a red brick cottage and streetfront shop last occupied two years ago as a cafe, but first built as McLeish’s Grain Store — were built in 1905 by prominent builder Henry Halliday and are on the council’s heritage trail.

Town planning academic and local resident Greg Smith says the proposed development does nothing to complement the site’s heritage.

“We want development, but we want it right,” he says. “They’ve dumped this public toilet on us.”

He suggests a three-storey development, keeping more features intact, would be better.

An October 13 council report says 48 people objected to the plan, five supported it and eight others had reservations.

Complaints include: it’s too high and will dwarf neighbouring buildings, there’s a shortfall in parking and it’ll exacerbate parking issues.

New councillor Brent Fleeton is a vocal supporter of development: in his nomination form, he said, “I want development of our suburbs to be welcomed, not delayed by pressure groups”.

He failed to respond to the Voice’s call about his stance on this development.

Cr Stephanie Coates says plans are yet to be tabled at a development assessment panel meeting — the decision isn’t made by the elected council.

Yolk Property Group director Pete Adams says his company has played by the rules and everything is in order: “We have been working closely with the City of Bayswater for over 12 months and have adhered to all of their requests,” he says. “We are approachable and willing to listen to the concerns of residents.”

He didn’t say when the buildings would come down but the project is scheduled for completion early 2017.

by EMMIE DOWLING

TWO local film-makers are seeking out anyone named Vincent for a Guinness World Record attempt at Dorrien Gardens.

Commissioned by Vincent city council as part of its annual film project, director Ashleigh Nicolau and writer Thomas Baskerville are documenting an attempt to gather at least 1101 people named Vincent to break the record.

The current “largest same name gathering—first name” record was set in Dubai back in 2005 with 1096 people named Mohammed.

It might be a tough task though: Mohammed’s the most popular name in the world with about 150 million people claiming it. In 2014 Vincent was roughly the 104th most popular name.

The Voice thought Vincent sounded like an old-man name but producer Jasmine Leivers says he’s had a few youngsters register interest “well, their parents did anyway, and we even have a one-year-old baby who is coming down”.

As for the significance of the target number, 1101: “It’s just a cool-looking number, we would be happy with 1097 to break the record!”

The Vincents in Vincent attempt is at Dorrien Gardens on November 29 at 1pm. Check out the Facebook page Viva La Vincent for more info, and Vincents should contact viva.la.vincent.perth@gmail.com to get on board.

by DAVID BELL

IS Debbie Saunders saying goodbye and good riddance to Vincent?

Ms Saunders is a regular in the Vincent city council chambers and often vocally critiques the council, but after bombing out of the weekend’s mayoral election race with a smidge over 5 per cent of the vote, she sent the Voice a web link showing her Leederville cafe is up for sale.

Her Oxford Street cafe, 50ml, is listed on the Garage Sale Trail website. Spruiked as “the best coffee shop on Oxford Street” it says it could also be fitted out as a small bar, and with 12 years on the lease, the place is selling for $300,000.

We called and texted Ms Saunders to try to find out more but didn’t hear back.

Over the years Ms Saunders has gotten stuck into the council over dozens of issues, including its bike path plan, its publishing of the names of people convicted of seeking a prostitute within city limits, and its handling of the nearby Leederville Hotel which has in the past had rowdy customers that made life tough for nearby traders (though to be fair since being rebranded as Bill’s Bar and Bites it’s a much calmer clientele these days).

by DAVID BELL

THE Eric Singleton bird sanctuary has reopened to the public after a $3 million project to restore the ailing wetlands.

An artificial wetland and the life work of late freeman of the city Eric Singleton, who worked there for 40 years, the wetland was in ecological decline and there’ve been low fauna numbers there lately.

In the 2013/2014 summer the wetland dried out completely and there were many bird deaths.

The joint project by Bayswater council and the Swan River Trust aims to restore the wetlands and make sure it’s healthy enough to improve the quality of water running through it and into the river.

The sanctuary used to rely on a bore but the water quality was getting bad with a build up of heavy metals and other nasties.

Now water from Bayswater Brook is diverted to run though, first going through a trap that removes pollutants before flowing into the wetland.

The healthier water should mean fewer algal blooms, bird deaths, mosquitoes and odours.

Now the heavy lifting’s done there’s a lot more tree planting planned to keep things green and lush.

The wetlands are home to the purple swan hen, dusky moorhen, willie wagtails, pelicans, dugites, western tree frogs, the dwarf skink and oblong turtles (the last of which had to be kept in safekeeping during the works. About 30 went missing, either stolen or eaten).

Since it’s reopened there’s also been some unwelcome animals: dogs. Owners have been letting their pooches run around but they’re not allowed in the sanctuary full stop, leashed or otherwise.

Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer came across a dog walker while he was down there who said he didn’t spot the (admittedly small) sign.

More are planned to make the don’t-let-your-dog-chase-these-stressed-out-birds policy more obvious.

by DAVID BELL