Perth Voice Interactive

SIX O’CLOCK council meetings and twin babies don’t mix, says Cr Julia Wilcox, who is standing down from Vincent council in October.

Cr Wilcox recently had another child and she says juggling three children under three years old and a tea-time meeting became impossible: “The council meetings are at six o’clock which is a terrible time for a family,” she says.

“Between 5 and 6.45 is battle stations—dinner, bath and bed.

“Having the meetings at seven would make it much easier for parents with young children.

“Imagine how my husband feels when I leave him at a quarter-to-six with three babies!”

She says she never asked for meeting times to change and believes in general the council is family-friendly: mayor John Carey had shown understanding when she said she was having twins and granted her three months’ leave.

Cr Wilcox says a highlight of her single term was helping successfully fight mergers and keeping Vincent intact.

Neighbouring councils Stirling and Bayswater both hold council meetings at 7pm, but Cr Stephanie Coates—who has three children under 10—says that can be problematic too.

“It’s a bit of a catch-22 because as children get older they start to do their homework at that time,” she says. “But there is no doubting that six is a bad time for parents with younger kids, and for me seven works well. I can still have dinner with my family and then go off to council.”

Mayor Carey says he’s open to a change in time but notes it’ll push the finish to an hour later.

“Meetings could finish very late into the night,” he says. “In other councils the public have to register to ask a question, but not at ours, which means question time can be quite lengthy sometimes.”

Cr Wilcox’s departure follows on the heels of WA police and women’s interests minister Liza Harvey calling on more women to run for local government: “A lot of people complain about the decisions of local government, well, guess why: they don’t have the diversity they need to make good decisions,” she says.

Ms Harvey urged women to “have a look at contributing back to your community and help raise the standard of local government”.

Half of Vincent’s elected members are female.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MIKE O’HANLON has withdrawn from the race for lord mayor of Perth, throwing his support behind Reece Harley.

“The election is a ‘first past the post’ affair and as such, two similar candidates would realistically split the progressive vote in half,” Mr O’Hanlon told his 1100 Facebook supporters on Tuesday.

“In doing so, we create a situation where the majority of votes go to us, but neither of us wins. If the election allowed preferences deals as per state/federal elections, I would have very much enjoyed running against Reece. There would have been a healthy debate around our differences.”

The two candidates both agree on a major policy of removing a gag order on councillors that prevents them openly speaking their minds about council issues.

“The current gag order is responsible for most of the dysfunction in our local government,” Mr O’Hanlon says. “With Reece in charge we can look forward to a far more transparent local government, and that means better opportunities for everybody”.

While off the campaign trail, the entrepreneurial Mr O’Hanlon has plenty to keep him busy: in preparing for the election he’s looked into the economics of distributed solar power generation, composing, car sharing and investing in the start-up sector, and intends to continue many of these projects from the private sector. He currently runs sandwich bar Toastface Grillah, software company Gramercy Studios and O’Hanlon Electric Motorsport.

Call to dump first past post

THE first past the post system used for local government elections should be dumped says Notre Dame politics lecturer Martin Drum.

First past the post means voters pick one candidate and whoever gets the most votes is elected.

Dr Drum says elections should be preferential, so the candidate most preferred by most voters is successful.

“Mr O’Hanlon’s argument is a fair and a reasonable one,” he says. “The common argument for retaining ‘first past the post is the fear that allowing preferences might allow groups to run multiple candidates and have them direct preferences to each other.”

He says the argument doesn’t stack up, with plenty of opportunity for evidence to be gathered from decades of preferential voting at state and federal elections.

“Any system which discourages candidates from standing, as has happened here, is disappointing,” he said.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER police have created a Safer Maylands Facebook page to enlist more locals in the fight against crime.

Senior Sergeant Dave Whitnell says they are looking for community leaders to become co-editors of the site and add content.

The page includes warnings about recent crimes and tips on crime prevention: “Three reported offences in the Maylands area recently. Burglary in Rupert Street where a laptop was taken. Wheelie bin stolen from Darby Street and a taxi broken into in Eighth Avenue.”

The page was launched at a recent Maylands crime forum, attended by around 40 locals, including Bayswater council candidate and local resident Catherine Ehrhardt.

“The strongest discussion centred around homelessness in the area,” she says.

“I think the safer Maylands page is great and people have been responding well to knowing exactly what is going on in the area with crime.

“We are hoping to put some more content in relation to crime prevention and some more public forums to really get the conversation going.”

Traders and residents on Eighth Avenue have been plagued with anti-social behaviour in recent years.

While discussing the crime forum, Ms Ehrhardt couldn’t resist having a pop at mayor Sylvan Albert, her rival in south ward.

“It was extremely disappointing that neither Cr Albert nor Cr John Rifici attended this meeting,” she says.

“Unfortunately, we are rather used to having south ward councillors that aren’t seen in their local community now.”

To check out Safer Maylands go to http://www.facebook.com/safermaylands.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE late soccer wunderkind Dylan Tombides has been honoured with a statue outside Perth Oval in East Perth.

Tombides died in April last year, aged 20, after losing his battle with testicular cancer.

The striker was viewed as a rising star in the game and had joined London EPL club West Ham and been given caps for the Australia’s under- 17 and 23 teams. The sculpture was created by Robert Hitchcock and depicts Tombides holding his shinguard with “Happy Birthday Mum X” inscribed on it; a reference to his celebration after scoring in the under-17 world cup.

More than 100 people, including premier Colin Barnett and Mt Lawley MP Michael Sutherland, attended the unveiling Tuesday.

“The boy had a great talent and it was a real tragedy what happened,” Mr Sutherland says.

“It is of little consolation, but this statue will be a fitting reminder of his talent for years and generations to come.”

Tombides started his career playing for local club Stirling Lions.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A SHORTFALL of six parking bays is putting in jeopardy plans for a ground-breaking American-style BBQ restaurant in Bayswater.

John Earnshaw had planned to open Porkies Barbeque at the corner of Railway Parade and Grand Promenade next month, but council officers say a lack of parking means the application must go out for public consultation.

What grinds Mr Earnshaw’s grits is he wasn’t told of the problem till near the end of his 90-day application period.

“The lease that we signed had a lease-free period which we will now have to pay, with no security that we will even get approval for our restaurant,” he told the Voice.

“We also cannot start fit out as we cannot get a building permit and even then we risk capital investment if we then get refused by the council.

“Our timeframes had aligned with the 90-day process and we were expecting to open in late October.

“With the news yesterday it looks like this could be pushed now until December — this has a significant impact on our family, both financially and emotionally.”

The Bedford resident has worked in hospitality for 25 years and trained as a “pitmaster” in America. He is one of the few qualified BBQ judges in WA.

He has imported a state-of-the-art smoker from Missouri and says his restaurant would be the only outlet in WA to offer authentic “low and slow barbecue”.

He argues there’s plenty of parking at a nearby “common bitumen area”, as well as across the road at Meltham train station.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A FREE meals service at Weld Square for homeless people will shift to 1.30pm to try to placate nearby residents and businesses.

Manna Inc hopes the change in time will result in the increasing numbers of people who depend on its charity disperse from the area by the time the sun goes down.

Locals have complained for years about anti-social behaviour, including fights and foul language.

Vincent mayor John Carey told locals via letter the change was an attempt ”at reducing the pressure on Weld Square during the evening by potentially reducing the number of people that gather in the park until late at night”.

But he notes there are other factors too, ”including intoxicated late night customers heading to McDonald’s… and a crackdown at Wellington Square in the City of Perth, which appears to have simply shifted some of the previous problems from that park into the City of Vincent”.

“The council has made commitments…to move Manna’s service by December, which is still the expectation of the community,” said resident Brayden Wardrop.

by DAVID BELL

WEST PERTH resident Anthony Fisk will run for Vincent’s south ward at this October’s election, making that four candidates for the ward’s two spots.

Mr Fisk works in communications, currently with Western Power and before that iiNet, and says he wants to use his skills to open up better dialogue with locals. He’s also passionate about giving micro-businesses a leg up.

Recently he wrote to the council about strengthening the identity of West Perth: the chunk of the suburb in Vincent is often forgotten, and its southern end is quiet and rundown.

He’s been thinking about running for a while — it’s in his blood, with his dad a former mayor of Burwood in NSW — but it was the lack of response to his concerns that galvanised his decision.

He’d also like to see more done to help small businesses set up in areas of the town that are suffering economic doldrums.

“One of the things we’re facing all over Perth is the economy’s in flux and going down in some parts, and we need to be smarter in how we redevelop some places that might be declining like parts of West Perth that are being vacated.”

As an example, he notes the crossfit gym he attends had to jump through hoops to set up, being held to strict requirements to provide parking bays despite the area being desperately underpopulated.

If elected he says he’ll champion micro-business and co-location set ups (where you might have a cafe and a gallery in a space that’s too big for either).

“Throwing support behind local businesses brings benefit to the whole community,” he says. “I want to work with residents and businesses alike to determine common goals we can work towards.

“Plus, as a new dad, I’m more conscious than ever about safety and ensuring our roads and public spaces can be enjoyed no matter the time of day or night.”

A Labor party member (but running as an independent), he’s up against the two candidates endorsed by mayor (and fellow Labor party member) John Carey—Jimmy Murphy and Susan Gontaszewski. Incumbent John Pintabona will also recontest. In north ward the only candidates we’ve heard from so far are deputy mayor Ros Harley and Dan Loden.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT city council has voted to ban the sale of coffee and hot drinks at the Leederville farmers’ market.

Two weeks ago the Voice reported market organiser Paul Ashbolt saying he would pull the plug on the Sunday morning markets if the ban went through. Rent and the long list of council rules were bad enough, but the prohibition of coffee sales would pretty much kill the whole thing, he said.

At the time of going to print, Mr Ashbolt was unavailable for comment.

Mayor John Carey says his patience is wearing thin with the market organisers.

“They’re proposing 60 stalls and if they are telling me this is make or break over a few coffee stalls then they need to get real—we will go and find other operators. Believe me, there are other people interested, and because of the way they have approached this, it’s wearing thin for the community and council.

“It’s not like the Kyilla markets where there are no nearby cafes. This is in the heart of the town centre and you can walk to a cafe in Oxford Street in no time.”

The markets previously rented private space and organisers had hoped for some fee relief from the council to enable more promotion.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

REJECTION by the powerful state administrative tribunal of a seven-unit development will help safeguard local heritage says the Mount Lawley Society.

Developer Sabby Pizzolante had appealed to the SAT after Stirling council rejected his application for a two-storey complex on Central Avenue, inside the city’s heritage protection zone.

“…if such a precedence was established it could in time, substantially compromise the significance of the locality,” the SAT noted in its report. “This development would have been the first two-storey dwelling to directly front Central Ave, and as such the heritage guidelines could not be compromised.”

Relieved neighbour Regan Whitby said he would have tried to sell if the project was approved because balconies would have looked directly into his back garden: “This sends a message to the residents of the area that inappropriate developments  can be successfully challenged,” he says. “And that the ‘character retention guidelines’ for the area must be carefully considered by developers.

“Infill development, although necessary, should be balanced with developments that contribute to the heritage and character value of our locality.”

Society member Tim Hammond believes the precinct’s character had hung in the balance: “In a case like this, the proposed development would have changed the streetscape dramatically and profoundly affected the amenity of the neighbourhood,” he says. “It is ludicrous to think that someone could simply drop in a seven-dwelling development in the middle of Central Avenue and expect life to go on as normal for the community.”

Mr Pizzolante argued his project involved demolishing a 1960s-era house next to the busy Clifton Crescent intersection and replacing it with a building with federation features.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

WITH Labor putting Metronet at the centre of its re-election campaign for 2017, the prospect of light rail through North Perth may not be dead yet.

Voice readers will recall from a series of earlier articles that the Barnett government has all-but abandoned its own pre-election promises for laying rail through the suburb, opting instead for buses. While some laud it as a sensible, affordable compromise, others see it as a blatant broken promise

At its state conference last weekend, Labor resurrected Metronet  — a centrepiece of its failed 2013 campaign — confident the Liberals have little public transport credibility left to counter it.

WA transport shadow Rita Saffioti is being dispatched to chat to councils, schools and other stakeholders about where they’d like to see the lines installed.

The first Metronet had an extra line running off Midland to deal with the wave of commuters from Ellenbrook, Ballajura and Beechboro that currently clogs up Fitzgerald and Beaufort Streets.

“From both a transport and a planning sense, light rail needs to be an option for Perth,” Ms Saffioti says. “Light rail can give you some real options to improve density and develop some hubs as well.”

WA transport minister Dean Nalder maintains buses provide ”more bang for your buck”.

by DAVID BELL