Perth Voice Interactive

A $255,000 dunny has been installed next to a rose garden on Bayswater’s Railway Parade.

Installing the Exeloo added $40,000 to the cost. It’s next to the train station, which doesn’t have a toilet.

The council installed the loo after Whatley Crescent traders complained of people defecating and urinating behind their shops. It had wanted to place the loo closer to the station but was overruled by the WA public transport authority.

Local resident and ex-town planner Greg Smith says the location stinks.

“How is it going to help traders on the other side of the station, and why position it right beside a rosebed?” he asks.

Mayor Sylvan Albert says traders were extensively consulted.

“The city examined several options that would help reduce anti-social behaviour [and] resolved that placement of the Exeloo at Railway Parade was the best option.

“The roses were removed on a temporary basis while the installation was being conducted. They will be planted back once the work is complete.”

Bayswater election candidate Dan Bull says residents and commuters should have been consulted, not just the traders association.

“A toilet is needed near the area, I agree with that,” he wrote on Facebook.

“However the spot that was chosen for it is right next to the historical rose gardens on Railway Parade.”

The toilet should be open by October 9.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker has criticised Bayswater mayor Sylvan Albert—who ran against her as a Liberal candidate in 2013—for not attending a WA liquor commission hearing into Woolworths’ $3.5 million redevelopment of the Peninsula Tavern.

The development site is slap-bang in the middle of Cr Albert’s south ward, which he’s recontesting at this month’s council elections.

“It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that the mayor did not make an appearance,” said Ms Baker, who spoke against the development at the hearing.

Great importance

“This hearing was of great importance to the community, yet no one from the city attended.”

Cr Albert says he hadn’t attended because “the city was not invited”.

Ms Baker told commissioners there was a wealth of evidence to suggest that “a Dan Murphy’s will exacerbate all of the issues with crime and street drinking that Maylands residents, shop owners, and community leaders have been working so hard stamp out”.

“More than 60 per cent of the hundreds of residents we have called share the view that a Dan Murphy’s in Maylands is not in the public’s best interest.”

In June the council voted to ban liquor outlets bigger than 300sqm from its suburbs, but the decision was too late to apply to this application.

The liquor commission’s decision is expected soon.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MOUNT HAWTHORN’S junior footy team just won their second premiership running.

This month the year eights took on friendly rivals the Coolbinia Bombers at Inglewood Oval to defend their title. Scores were level at quarter time, with Mt Hawthorn team edging ahead and holding on till the final siren.

The Mt Hawthorn Cardinals have about 500 players and club president Scott Robinson says they had a ripper year with both the year eight and nine teams making the grand finals, and Aranmore College student Adam Boules earning best on ground from the umps.

THE folks from the local Claisebrook Catchment Group spend many a weekend cleaning up our waterways, so they’re hoping to encourage local greenthumbs to ditch the fertiliser-heavy gardens and go au naturale.

Their yearly catchment friendly garden competition is on again to reward people who use local plants which need less water and less fertiliser that then heads into the wetlands and causes all sorts of problems (plus native plants are better habitat for our wee animals).

There’s $500 for first place and entries close October 2, and there’s more info on http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au about other categories, or call them on  9273 6563.

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Trail marked
ANCIENT stories meet modern technology with new steel trail-markers showing the Karda Bidi section of the Whadjuk trail network around Perth. A project of a western suburbs council, the network marks out significant points along the trail like heritage spots and remnant bushlands, and QR codes along the way let hikers listen to Aboriginal stories and songs about the spots. There’s a map at http://www.whadjukwalkingtrails.org.au

IT’S taken the better part of a decade and three mayoral regimes, but Vincent finally has a character retention policy that lets concerned residents maintain the look and feel of their streets.

Historic streetscapes being interrupted by boxy modern buildings has long been an issue in the dormitory suburbs, accounting for a fair percentage of concerned letters to the Voice over the years.

The character retention policy passed this week allows residents who like the look of their streets to come to council to seek preservation.

It’s been tried before and fallen apart: on previous iterations residents took umbrage at schemes that’d see the council pick streets and impose protection from on high.

Under this policy residents nominate the streets themselves: if 40 per cent of affected owners support the nomination, they get together at a council-run workshop to figure out what they like about the area and what they want to protect.

“This is a really flexible approach and it’s driven by what the street wants,” mayor John Carey says.

He says an area’s rules “could prescribe height, ie two storeys, it could prescribe fencing, carports, house frontages.

“Ultimately, this has got to be driven by the street, I don’t want to impose something on people that they don’t want.”

Former councillor Dudley Maier had long wanted to get this type of policy up and running, dating back to the days when Nick Catania was mayor, but could never get enough support to vote it through.

He sat in the public gallery on the other side of the velvet ropes as councillors voted it in unanimously on Tuesday night.

“It’s reasonable, it’s measured, it’s a good start,” he says.

“There are improvements to be made, but it’s a learning exercise and as you go through you’ll identify those improvements.

“The whole emphasis is it’s community based, the community has to take the first step so it’s neighbours talking to neighbours rather than council starting it.”

by DAVID BELL