Perth Voice Interactive

PLANS for a five-storey William Street unit block have neighbours worried it’ll dominate the street and lead to gridlock.

Locals are worried they’ll lose their privacy with balconies peering over their windows and backyards.

With 48 units and 48 car bays, many locals are sceptical every unit will contain just a one-car family, putting pressure on the already packed Alma Road and the wee laneway behind.

Developers McDonald Jones Architects reckon it’s a good fit for the site, saying it’s largely compliant under most of the rules (or soon will be when the new town planning scheme two comes in).

But even under the more generous TPS2, this one still stuffs more on the block than what’s automatically allowed. And while the architects point out a six-storey block is already just across the road, residents reckon that’s less in-your-face, being set way back from the edge of the road and obscured by trees.

The ultimate decision will rest with the local development assessment panel, scheduled to meet late January.

Most of the street turned out to meet local federal MP Alannah MacTiernan, a former Vincent mayor and former state Labor planning minister.
She counseled residents to fight the project on the grounds it’s too close to the edge of the block and leaves too little open space and green space. Opposing the height is likely a dead-end since it can be allowed under council policy, she says.

Ms MacTiernan also advised locals to contact state Liberal MP Eleni Evangel and let their views be known. She said she’d seen DAPs make “utterly” political decisions in the western suburbs, without being politically accountable.

Residents plan to meet with developers before the DAP date to try to come to a compromise.

by DAVID BELL

ASTOR THEATRE owner Bruno Zimmermann has the Alanis Morissette lament Ironic swirling through his head.

Stirling city council is set to hand owners of heritage-listed properties a rates concession, but the Astor is in the section of Mt Lawley that shifts to Bayswater in council mergers in July.

Bayswater offers heritage grants of up to $4000, but no rates concessions.

“Ever since I took over the Astor 18 years ago I have been asking Stirling for a concession in rates,” Mr Zimmermann sighs. “Now they do it when I’m moving shires—it’s too little, too late. It’s very expensive to own a heritage-listed property because of all the restrictions and special regulations you have to abide by when doing any changes or developments.”

Stirling officers calculate 39 heritage-listed properties will remain in the city’s boundaries following mergers.

The city is considering a 50 per cent rates concession for residential heritage-listed properties and a lesser concession for commercial properties. The concession is subject to council budget approval. It will be reviewed after a two-year trial.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

BAYSWATER councillors are feuding over a decision to appoint an independent arborist before cutting down any more trees.

Cr Terry Kenyon says it’s a necessary move after the backlash that followed the axing of several century-old trees at Halliday Park without community consultation (Voice, November 21, 2014).

But Cr Mike Sabatino says the decision is effectively a vote of no-confidence in the ability of council staff to decide which trees should come down. “We have people on the city staff who have dealt with trees for over 25 years and who have a wealth of experience,” Cr Sabatino says.

“Now we’re telling them how to suck eggs—it’s insulting.”

Cr Kenyon says the decision, “will ensure that we engage with the community and investigate ways of retaining the trees before we vote to remove them”. “We are the ‘Garden City’ and trees are close to the heart of many ratepayers in the city.”

Council technical director Doug Pearson got tetchy as councillors queried the qualifications of his staff: “We don’t have a qualified arborist on staff, but we have a variety of experienced people, some with up to 30 years’ experience in the forestry and tree sector,” he said.

Cr Chris Cornish says the new policy complements the council’s recent decision to boost its tree canopy to 20 per cent by 2025: “Now we have a policy to plant the trees, and a policy to protect the ones that are already there,” he says. “The trees belong to the whole community and we should consult widely about removal, not just with the one or two people who lives opposite the tree on the verge.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

WHAT makes grown men drool over primitive computer games and heavy-duty vinyl reissues of Supertramp?

The whiff of nostalgia? A world glimpsed through rose-tinted Speedos?

Michael de Grussa will cash in on this psychological phenomena when he provides games consoles for High Score, a nostalgia-inspired games lounge.

“The games were better back then, they lasted longer and they were easier to play,” he says.

“I guess you had a bit of a social aspect as well, because if it was multiplayer you couldn’t do it online and had to all be in the same room with four controllers.

de Grussa will provide around 10 consoles for High Score, including the Mega Drive, N64, SNES and PS1.

“It’s an excuse to act like a child again,” he laughs, “and alcohol is involved.”

High Score is on Sunday at the Defectors Bars, above The Flying Scotsman, from 3-10pm on Beaufort Street.

AROUND 2000 people crammed the pavements for the launch of the Inglewood night markets Monday.

Food-stall holders reported good business with many selling out.

‘They didn’t just come to look, they came to eat and enjoy themselves,” says Amandine Trouillet, from Miam Miam: a bite of France. Marcelita’s Empanadas Matt O’Donohue said he had to get his “foodie friends” to lend a hand and wash up after being swamped by customers.

The market, organised by the nascent community group Inglewood on Beaufort, stretched from Sixth to Tenth avenues.

IOB manager Jeff Atkinson says surrounding businesses also benefited from the market launch.

“What I really enjoyed seeing was how other shop owners opened on Beaufort Street and people filled their shops—cafes, restaurants, pets shops, you name it they flowed in,” he says. “The most encouraging aspect of the opening night was that the love was spread around, up and down Beaufort Street, with all vendors being happy with the IOB market.

“The IOB community network have been working tirelessly for 12 months to get this event up and running, and the hard work has paid off.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE Mount Hawthorn Hawker Markets has won ongoing approval for the summer after a successful four-week trial.

The event by Local Arts and Community Events was so overwhelmingly successful that on the first night the stalls ran out of food.

It’s been a big drawcard for the area but the nearby Cabin restaurant has reported a dip in trade on market nights. Instead of whinging it wants to get on board the gravy train with a stall of its own.

After 100 people wrote supportive submissions and only two objected, Vincent council unanimously approved the markets for the summer, running every Friday until the end of March.

Meanwhile more food options are on the way with the council approving a food truck trial from January to April, with interested mobile chefs asked to contact the council.

by DAVID BELL

NORTHBRIDGE trader Evan Kakulas has pulled from sale all palm oil products in his William Street shop after learning they were leading to the deaths of orangutans.

“I am an animal lover,” he says. “I try to look after the swans in my backyard too.”

He’s recently posted a sign at Kakulas Brothers telling patrons “all palm oil products have been permanently discontinued due to irrefutable evidence of its damage to our environment and rainforests”.

Mr Kakulas has been going over labels and scouring the shelves of products that contain palm oil from Borneo and Sumatra.

“When they destroy these rainforests to plant these palm trees, it gets rid of the orangutans’ habitat,” he says.

The gentle primates are slow-moving and unable to escape fires set to clear land, or are shot as pests by farmers. The WWF says they’re also vulnerable to poaching as illegal pets.

Despite some popular products disappearing from the shelves-—like pure palm oil favoured by African chefs—Mr Kakulas says he’s yet to have a single complaint once people understand his reasons.

“It’s been 100 per cent positive,” he says, even from “people on Facebook I’ve never heard of” after a passerby posted the sign online.

Mr Kakulas practised law most of his life before taking over the family business and becoming fascinated with health foods. These days he eats dried cranberries and cocoa nibs by the handful, along with special mixtures in a half-dozen other containers.

Palm oil is not the first ingredient he’s pulled from the shelves, having previously discontinued monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Now he’d like to see stronger labelling laws to better identify products with genetically modified materials in them. Right now it’s too opaque, he says, meaning people are robbed of making an informed choice.

For more information on the impacts of palm oil on orangutan, visit http://www.orangutan.org.au

by DAVID BELL