Perth Voice Interactive

THE dodgy tree-loppers are back.

An outfit that fleeced a 90-year-old Coolbinia man out of $1000 have letterboxed his house again, looking for repeat business.

Talbot Bashall is keen to get the word out: he wouldn’t touch WA Tree Services with a barge pole.

Late last year he’d answered a knock on the door and was presented with a $1480 bill for the pruning of a verge tree.

He hadn’t engaged anyone to do the work but the men at the door insisted on payment and produced a mobile eftpos machine. Flustered, Mr Bashall paid $1000 on the spot.

He later contacted WA consumer protection, which issued a warning about the company, and eventually got his money back.

Mr Bashall was gobsmacked when the same company letter-boxed him last week: “I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “Why on earth would I consider employing that mob?

“I wonder how many more suckers are going to be hurt: I count myself as one such sucker, albeit a wiser one now.”

WA consumer protection has issued warnings and taken various legal actions in response to complaints about the company’s business practices.

In May 2014 an enforceable undertaking required WA Tree Services and its employees to provide consumers with an itemised, written quotation which described in detail work agreed to be carried out, the cost for each item listed and a total cost, including taxes and other charges.

The business is also required to obtain written authorisation from the customer to commence work. Its flyers are now reviewed to ensure references to local council garden waste collections are distributed in areas where such services are offered.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

REVISED plans for a concrete batching plant on Collier Road have been rejected by Bayswater city council.

WA Limestone’s original application was booted in June 2011, with residents and councillors concerned about the impact of dust and noise.

The applicant appealed to the state administrative tribunal, which issued conditional approval in July last year.

However, WA Limestone wanted further changes and came back to council with a revised proposal last week.

Despite the SAT’s earlier decision, Cr Barry McKenna gave a rousing speech on the dangers of approving the plant.

“Build your batching plant in a more appropriate locality, not near residents or a very popular local reserve is the clear message given by the ratepayers,” he told the chamber and gallery.

“It has been nearly four years since this item first came to council and in that time the issue of dust and noise has not been removed.

“On this matter I have not had any ratepayers speak to me and say you need to support a concrete batching plant: it has met with total opposition from my electorate.

“The council continues unanimously to state that this proposed batching plant is not consistent with proper and orderly planning.”

Former councillor Sally Palmer, who has spearheaded the residents’ campaign against the plant, says there is not enough information available to grant approval.

“The department of environment haven’t got back to us with their findings yet,” she says.

“This has been going on for five years and I not only feel sorry for the residents, because of the long-term uncertainty, but also the applicant.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

AN aspiring franchise owner stormed out of Vincent’s council meeting this week, furious with the rejection of his plans to open a Guzman y Gomez food store in the heart of Leederville.

The council’s 5/4 vote to knock it back blindsided both the applicant and staff who’d recommended approval.

“Disgraceful!” the man exclaimed. “You could have told us that three months ago before we spent $50,000!”

Applicants LLT and JK Miller wanted to open the Mexican chain store on the Oxford Street strip. It would have joined two GyGs in James and Beaufort Streets, and more than 40 others across Australia.

Mayor John Carey told the angry applicant it was the council’s democratic right to make a decision it believed to be right.

During debate he’d said he was “deeply concerned by the number of franchises coming into our main streets”, noting the rise of popular burger chain Grill’d.

He’d voted to approve the Guzman y Gomez application because it met planning rules, but expressed concern franchises were snuffing out unique suburban identities.

“This kills the main street vibrancy, it kills choice,” he said. “What we face is we lose independent stores, independent food, and instead we get a raft of franchises that look the same. Is that what we ultimately want in town centres?”

by DAVID BELL

THE winter chill is doing Perth’s poetry scene a favour.

Icy winds whistle through windows—a cosy nook inside a warm cafe, a likely saviour.

Perth Poetry Club member Elio Novello says about a dozen more people turn up to its events in the cooler months.

“People aren’t doing outdoor activities,” the local poet says. “Instead, they want to be warm indoors, and poetry lends itself to being a winter event.”

The seven-year-old club is hosting its quarterly “mega” open-mic night at The Moon cafe this weekend.

Novello expects the usual winter audience of almost 50 poetry lovers. Summer events attract no more than 35.

“The poems can be very funny,” he says. “Sometimes they’re very sad. We get the well-to-do people, the homeless, teenagers, the elderly, anarchists as well as conservatives. We get all sorts of people come for the poetry.”

The event, Mega Open-Mike Event, is from 2-4pm on Saturday (June 6). Each poet will speak for five minutes. No need to book, just consider leaving a donation.

by EMMIE DOWLING

THE newly formed Stirling Urban Tree Network is hosting a community forum on why we need trees in the suburbs if we want to avoid urban heat, increase property prices and keep people sane.

Based on the Bayswater Urban Tree Network driven by the Voice’s regular dendrophile correspondent Greg Smith, organiser Leisha Jack says the new group wants to get the concrete-happy Stirling suburbs savvy about the benefits of trees so people will want to keep them around.

Helen Brown from the Curtin uni school of public health will talk about the importance of urban trees for physical and mental health, urban planner Peter Ciemitis yarns about our individual roles in the loss of urban forest, and Paul Hardisty from the CSIRO will be talking urban heat caused by the lack of trees.

Hosted with the Mt Lawley Society, It’s at the Mt Lawley bowling club on June 8 at 6.30pm. Register mountlawleysociety@gmail.com

by DAVID BELL

IT’S au revoir to Vincent councillor James Peart as he prepares to resign and move to France.

Wife Rebecca is an interpreter and teaches English, and they’re saying adieu to Australia for a work opportunity.

Cr Peart will be working in remote consultancy, doing urban planning from afar.

Elected early last year to fill the spot left by John Carey becoming mayor, Cr Peart was an ardent campaigner against the plan to split Vincent and was frequently seen riding around town on his bike festooned with anti-split banners.

His term expired in October: as it’s only a few months away there will be no by-election.

Cr Peart’s had a rough time since his election, suffering Ross River virus and the mayor’s constant mispronunciation of his name.

“It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work alongside such passionate and dedicated elected members,” Cr Peart says, and he’s proud of the city for winning the “David and Goliath” battle against forced amalgamations.

He believes the council’s in good hands, saying “the community will not accept a turning back of the dynamic direction that has been set in recent times”.

From the days when he used to sit in the public gallery he reckons the standard of debate has soared (though he won’t miss the hecklers).

Cr Peart told the Voice he will be resigning in the first week of July.

by DAVID BELL