Perth Voice Interactive

ONE of the most iconically cringeworthy landmarks of Perth will be covered up, with the old Hahn Ice mural on the side of the Murray Lodge to be covered by a $200,000 LED billboard.

The Murray Street building is a famous eyesore, with even the owners admitting it’s “ugly outside, beautiful within”.

Perth city councillors were split over whether to allow the new board, but most gave it the thumbs up.

The PCC’s usual rules allow these lit signs in the CBD but they’re a no go in the West Perth precinct, where signs should be “of a high quality and conservative and restrained in character, scale and form”.

Cr James Limnios told anti-sign councillors the council was progressive in other areas but “when it comes to signs, we’re like Nazis, we’re old-fashioned”.

Cr Rob Butler reckoned the lit-up sign would go a ways towards making the dingy carpark outside the tired motel more “vibrant”.

“It is lifeless,” he said of the locale. “Why wouldn’t we try to add some vibrancy and a bit of colour, because quite frankly the only colour around the area at the moment is the Shell garage.”

Cr Reece Harley said an LED billboard (that would most likely be advertising McDonald’s) was “not my idea of vibrancy”. Cr Judy McEvoy and Jim Adamos agreed.

Lodge owners won approval for a 10-level addition in February 2013, but nothing eventuated. That runs out next February.

by DAVID BELL

COMICBOOK seller by day, bitch by night.

Alison Arrowsmith will swap Wonder-Woman for a labradoodle when she dresses as a dog in the stage show Mutts.

Arrowsmith works at Quality Comics in the CBD but will play “Peppa”, a posh pooch from the swanky end of town.

“She’s usually calm and collected but is ready to defend herself, or others close to her, should the need arise,” Arrowsmith says.

“The challenge is bringing to life a character that looks down on others yet can identify with them while adding in the necessary dog characteristics to make Peppa believable as a dog.”

Mutts, written by Johnny Grim, is the poignant tale of how nine mongrels end up in the pound together.

Director Jane Sherwood encouraged her cast to spend as much time as possible observing dogs and also had pooches at rehearsals.

“As a group, we also spend time discussing how our own dogs react in different circumstances,” she says.

“We’re all having a wonderful time bringing the dogs to life with rehearsals full of barks, tail-chasing and sniffing.”

Sherwood adds she fell in love with the Mutts script on the first reading.

“John writes wonderful dialogue and in this script he has created a series of characters that, despite the fact they’re dogs, are easy to relate to.

“Their stories have so many parallels to what us humans go through at various stages of our lives.”

Arrowsmith has previously appeared in several short films but Mutts is her first stage production.

“Mutts appealed because I liked the idea of being a dog and showing how they can end up in the pound,” she says.

Mutts is showing at the Latvian Centre Theatre in Belmont.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

DRONES will effectively be banned in Perth city council airspace under broad new rules to outlaw anything bigger than a paper plane.

Old rules banned model aeroplanes, gliders and rockets.

With drones becoming more popular here—particularly as camera-carrying devices—the PCC will also blanket-ban ‘copters and any “other device capable of flight propelled by mechanical, hydraulic, combustion or pyrotechnic means”.

Maylands markets doubts continue

WEAK leadership at Bayswater city council has led to uncertainty over the future of the Maylands Hawkers Markets, says local Labor MP Lisa Baker.

The MP says ever since the council voted to delay approval, pending a traffic management report, she has been inundated with calls from residents “outraged the council is dragging its feet”.

“It seems that some members of council have chosen to postpone a decision on the proposal in an effort to stymie the markets,” she says.

“I understand the mayor used his casting vote to delay the markets when another councillor abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest.

“It seems that a lack of strong leadership in council on this issue has led to a decision to postpone consideration of the proposal.”

Mayor Sylvan Albert— Ms Baker’s Liberal opponent at last year’s state election—says he is fully supportive of the markets and Ms Baker’s attack “looks like a case of a local MLA trying to build her profile”.

“Council deferral was to ensure that the traffic management and parking arrangements met the needs of all the parties concerned to ensure longevity of the markets.

“This way the city can look after the interests of the markets and other businesses in the area, who have expressed their concern about parking.

“As I’ve previously advised there’s a lot of goodwill towards this community initiative amongst myself and my colleagues.”

Meanwhile, Local Arts and Community Events, the not-for-profit group behind the markets, has been busy formulating a Plan B and has held talks with Vincent mayor John Carey about hosting the event on his patch.

“The talks with John Carey went well and we are meeting up with a local group in Vincent next week to progress the plan,“ says LACE chairperson Catherine Ehrhardt.

“We are also looking at a site in the City of Swan as well.

“These markets would be on different days and not conflict with the Saturday Maylands market—if that eventually gets approved.”

The market completed a successful 12 month trial next to The Rise but the council voted to put it on ice pending a traffic report.

Ms Ehrhardt says the delay leaves her no time to attract sponsors or ready the markets for lucrative pre-Christmas trading.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

Stories by David Bell:

HAVING chaired during many rowdy meetings in her time, former Vincent mayor Alannah MacTiernan says councils need powers to ban people who are consistently disruptive and abusive.

The federal Perth Labor MP says criticism is welcome but councils need more authority to stop continual interjections and abusive remarks aimed at staff.

She says a restraining order-style system for repeat offenders may be necessary.

“I do think it gets to the point where the behaviour of particular individuals can totally interrupt the ability of the council to do its job,” she says.

“If you do get someone with a kangaroo loose in the top paddock you can totally disrupt the council’s ability to discharge their responsibilities.

“The ability to disrupt the procedures and prevent council from getting on and dealing with all of the city is quite profound, and I do think we need to have a look at what powers local government has.”

As mayor she challenged council critics Debbie Saunders and Stuart Lofthouse to run for council (they didn’t).

“I don’t think there was a thing we did that he didn’t oppose,” Ms MacTiernan recalls. “He and his friend have been so vitriolic at council.”

Ms Saunders says ratepayers don’t swear to abide by standing orders when entering the council building, and in any case it should be seen as the people’s property.

Mr Lofthouse’s enmity with council stretches back at least as far as the Nick Catania days, when the council produced visioning documents for the Leederville masterplan.

In the artist’s depiction of Oxford Street, Mr Lofthouse’s cafe, Greens and Co is bulldozed, replaced by an arcade.

Mr Lofthouse has also long opposed what he describes as favourable treatment the council offers to the Leederville Hotel. He and fellow cafe owner Debbie Saunders have frequently complained about patrons running amok at closing time and piddling in doorways.

Back in 2011 Mr Catania threatened to sic the rangers onto the pair after Mr Lofthouse used mildly salty language to describe inconsistencies in a council report.

In 2013 ex-CEO John Giorgi threatened to call the police on them for continually interrupting a meeting and labelling senior staff as liars.

Together they’ve opposed the bike plan, the name-and-shame list for street prostitution convictions, aspects of the Oxford Park upgrades, drinking fountains on the street, and the number of confidential items being heard behind closed doors without public scrutiny.

Ms Saunders says they just want transparency and answers from the council.

Mayor John Carey says the council has tried to work with the pair, and recently installed Ms Saunders on the Leederville Enhancement Committee.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve tried to be inclusive,” he says.
He says “to a certain level we tolerate it” when there’s been a bit of rowdiness, but two weeks ago saw repeated interjections and refusals to withdraw remarks and sit down.

Ms Saunders says she fully intends to attend the next council meeting, despite Mr Lofthouse’s physical ejection from the previous one.

Mr Carey says they have the right to attend, but interruptions will be cut short.

“If they denigrate staff, if they swear, then I will take the same action that I’ve taken before.”

To support his argument that abusive emails had been escalating in the lead-up to the meeting, then-acting CEO Mike Rootsey made available recent correspondence from Ms Saunders.

On July 16 she’d told council members the agenda was “a load of bullshit and lies”.

“You don’t listen to the residents, you do whatever the mayor says and he takes his orders from the Labor party.

“You should all be dismissed as councillors as you do not do the job you were elected to do.”

Mr Lofthouse sent an email the next day saying information in the report about the bike plan was “misleading and particularly bias in its reporting.

“Are you following directives from the mayor or are really that stupid.”

On the Vincent Facebook page (from which Ms Saunders has been banned, after posting comments under various noms de plume) she said, “Vincent is a corrupt council and Mayor Carey is covering up these investigations”. Her username “Babs Gc” has since been banned.

Formal police complaints

A FORMAL police complaint has been lodged by Vincent city council over a scuffle at a recent meeting.

Grainy CCTV footage of the incident, which occurred when rangers attempted to evict Stuart Lofthouse, has now been posted online by fellow trader Debbie Saunders.

The council had previously said “the matter escalated after Mr Lofthouse put one of our officers in a headlock and threw a number of punches”.

After the Voice asked then-acting CEO Rick Lotznicker to pinpoint where on the video this had happened, he said the matter was under investigation and the council was standing by its comments.

Mr Lofthouse and Ms Saunders have contacted police with plans to lodge their own complaint.

BAYSWATER City Soccer Club has won its second straight state cup.

The Black and Blues beat Stirling 2-0 at Macedonia Park to lift the trophy.

Clinical goals from striker Steve Burton and Todd Howarth sealed the win. Bayswater is also top of the national premier league ladder with 44 points, winning 14 of its 18 games.

Last year Baysy completed the treble, winning the night series, state cup and league.

Gaffer Chris Coyne accepted the coaching job at Baysy on a gentleman’s handshake at the start of last season.  It is the first time he had coached a senior team on a full-time basis.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

CYCLISTS are promising to boycott Leederville cafe Greens & Co, painting owner Stuart Lofthouse as bikeist.

Mr Lofthouse says he doesn’t oppose bike lanes in principle, he just doesn’t want them down Oxford Street. He was wrestled to the ground by rangers at a Vincent council meeting last week after refusing to leave for constantly interjecting during proceedings (Voice, July 26, 2014).

Mayor John Carey had asked numerous times for him to be quiet and had asked his partner, Debbie Saunders, to retract her remark that staff were “incompetents”.

Following the meeting, cyclists read Mr Lofthouse’s outburst as anti-cycling (though Voice readers will know he has a long history of opposition to the council that’s not confined to bike lanes).

The Bicycle Transport Alliance paid to promote its post on Facebook saying “what I witnessed there was a vehement attack on the democratic process by people opposed to the bike plan and cycling”.

“Boycott these establishments,” Steven McKeirnan posted.

“I was shocked and disgusted at the contempt that these well-known individuals displayed for the democratic and civil process, while at the same time scream about their own rights,” posted Marti Hughes, who in the past has criticised Mr Lofthouse online.

“The mayor and the council handled the situation respectfully and deserve the full community support. Do not believe the rubbish you are likely to read in the Voice,” he added.

Facebooker Jennifer van den Hoek contacted a slew of other riders who’d checked in to Greens & Co and suggested they join the boycott. Another rider said they knew 48 cyclists who wouldn’t return.

Vincent councillor Matt Buckels, a keen cyclist, was more circumspect in his online musings: “Ok things went too far on Tuesday but ‘business owner thinks council is incompetent/fools’ happens all over the world it’s no big deal. Personally I like Greens and 50ml and won’t be avoiding them over this.”

by DAVID BELL