Perth Voice Interactive

FACEBOOK gripes, planned pyjama protests and mass petitions have greeted the WA government’s decision to cancel late-night trains.

The Perth public, rarely this upset over an issue not involving football, has reacted furiously to the dumping of 1am and 2am weekend trains from April.

PTA media hound David Hynes says the late-night carriages are underutilised and uneconomical. With an average of 80 people per train, he calculates taxpayers are shelling out $17 per person, and ending them will save $1.5 million a year. The late runs also hold up maintenance and require more hours for staff in customer service and security.

But that doesn’t wash with Perth’s train-going public who reckon late-night trains come with the territory of being a capital city.

They’ve debunked claims of poor patronage by posting photos showing packed carriages.

Perth city councillor Reece Harley describes the cut as a “ludicrous, counter-productive and illogical decision”.

Trains are a public service and should be subsidised just like schools and hospitals. He’s imploring people to write to WA transport minister Dean Nalder—a former banking executive and unlikely train commuter—to oppose the decision.

A petition by Bateman man Luke Pickersgill has garnered 7479 supporters in three days. He says the plan disadvantages people without a car who’ll have no other choice than expensive taxis.
Not even the whiff of more business makes the Taxi Industry Forum happy: it reckons the new flood of people trying to get home could lead to trouble for drivers as aggravated punters feud over scarce cabs. The Australian Hotels Association is likewise fuming about the lack of consultation.

Social media hasn’t shaken the PTA from its stance, but it’s yet to encounter the five-minutes-past-midnight pyjama protest planned for 12.05am at Forrest Chase on March 6.

by DAVID BELL

A CONTROVERSIAL laneway party will be held in the newly revamped lane in Leederville, despite concerns from residents, traders and half the Vincent council.

Councillors were split down the middle: Four for, four agin, with mayor John Carey throwing his casting vote in favour of the February 21 shindig.

Organisers “Rough Love” say it’ll feature soulful house music “free from coarse language”.

They expect up to 500 people on the night but no more than 200 at any time.

Cr Ros Harley was suspicious of the “soulful” house music claim and said “I don’t support a private entertainment company getting our brand new laneway—that we’re still spending money on—free of charge and disrupting pedestrian flow”.

Andrew Parissis of the popular Siena’s restaurant next door is livid. He says Saturday is a big trading night and the noise will be unbearable for his customers.

“A couple of years ago the council approved a fashion parade for the same laneway that totally destroyed our night,” he wrote in a blistering letter of complaint.

“The music was so loud… we had customers walking out of our restaurant, and that was just a fashion parade with only ‘catwalk’ music.”

Mr Parissis says Siena’s pays taxes and rates and he and his family live in the city, yet the council seems more interested in helping a “promoter from nowhere”.

The laneway being blocked will mean people must walk the long way round to get to the carpark or intrude through private shops like Greens & Co.

Cr Laine McDonald says it’s a one-off event and deserves support: “I see this as a very good activation of the laneway space.”

Cr Josh Topelberg regards it as “deeply curious” the organisers claim in their risk assessment they’ll be catering to a crowd of “elderly, mobility impaired” people but he voted for it nevertheless. He says lively events like this “providing house music, soulful or otherwise” are “why we are urban and not suburban”.

Cr Emma Cole and the mayor agreed.

by DAVID BELL

Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer was out and about in Aberdeen Street, Northbridge when he came across this little fella. That’s it, we just thought it was a cute pic. Any Voice reader know what it is?

STIRLING mayor Giovanni Italiano is joining a chorus of voices calling for the entire council merger program to be scrapped.

This week Colin Barnett conceded his plan to nearly halve the number of WA local governments from 30 to 16 had failed, after ratepayers in East Fremantle, Kwinana and South Perth formally rejected amalgamation.

The WA local government association withdrew its support for the process soon after.

Several councils—technically undergoing “boundary alignments” and not mergers on July 1—are now demanding the entire program be binned.

“You can’t have partial reform, it’s all or nothing and we are calling on the state government to be consistent in their approach and abandon the whole process once and for all,” says Cr Italiano.

“The city has already spent over $800,000 on this process to date and with the current declaration by the premier that if local communities don’t want to take part in the reform process they won’t have to, we believe the process should be completely scrapped.

“What is really frustrating is that more than 23,000 of my ratepayers, who are earmarked to move into other proposed local governments, were not afforded the right to vote on this.

“How is this democratic when you have somewhere like East Fremantle who has a population of 5178 residents who are (justly) afforded the right to have a say, but no, not our 23,000 residents who feel the same way.”

Bayswater mayor Sylvan Albert says his city has spent a cool $1.2 million preparing for the reform. Bayswater was to annex Bassendean and sections of Mt Lawley, Inglewood and Swan.

Cr Albert, a Liberal candidate at the last state election, was one of the few mayors happy with the planned merger, but is now left “very disappointed”. “The city supports local government structural reform and has done so almost from the beginning,” he says.  “We definitely need direction from the state government on where we go from here.  I am very disappointed at the lack of direction currently being provided on the way forward for local government reform.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE sound of her car bursting into flames awakened Susannah Connor 1.30am Monday.

The Highgate woman rushed outside her Harley Street home to see her Volvo 950 burning beyond repair and her neighbour’s car also on fire.

“It’s verge collection time and it looks like someone set a mattress alight and the flames spread to my neighbour’s car and mine,” Ms Connor told the Voice.  She says the fire brigade was seen extinguishing another burning mattress in nearby Cavendish Street, and it had also been in Mary Street some time during the morning.

Neighbour Bob Roberts says a verge tree was also badly scorched in the blaze.

“Susannah’s house backs onto a laneway, so they probably wandered through there,” he reckons. “I used to stay on Mary Street and there was a fire on a vacant block around four years ago. There’s been a few break-ins in the area, but not many fire bugs.”

A WA police spokesperson says they’re “aware of the incident” and have conducted patrols, but ”need assistance from the public in relation to anyone or saw anything around that time”.

Contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

VINCENT mayor John Carey says a betting man wouldn’t put money on the merger with Perth going ahead.

Premier Colin Barnett said this week he was running up the white flag on mergers after three were formally rejected by residents in referenda.

The Perth-Vincent merger was never put to residents for their view because the government was going to make it happen via legislation, with a new City of Perth Act mashing them together.

Mr Carey says since Labor and the Nationals won’t support any Act that doesn’t allow residents a vote, so there’s little chance of it going ahead: the bill would barely scrape through the lower house  (it needs just two Liberals to cross the floor to kill it) but faces certain death in the upper house where Labor, the Greens and the Nationals can outvote the Liberals.

Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi, fresh off the plane from a trip to California, says she wants the Vincent merger cancelled, but her council is still keen for boundary reform to incorporate key assets such as UWA, Kings Park and Sir Charles Gairdner hospital.

The deflated premier says he still wants to go ahead with changes “where there’s consensus and goodwill”.

While some councils have set out to pursue the millions of dollars they’ve spent on the merger process, Mr Carey says “I won’t be jumping on the bandwagon”.

Vincent’s cash costs are comparatively small—about $90,000—and Mr Carey says it’s not worth chasing it as it’s likely to be a fruitless exercise. He concedes the time he and the CEO spent on the process has hindered their day to day work and attempts to improve council culture.

by DAVID BELL