Perth Voice Interactive

THE Mary Street Piazza trial is up and running, with a temporary public space on the corner of Beaufort Street open until August 8.

Beaufort Street’s long been in need of places to linger, with shoppers and diners passing through.

The council (and the Beaufort Street Network) is hoping it takes off to encourage people to be “Beaufort Street Loiterers”. It happened to be empty when our photographer dropped by, but it has attracted artists who’ve been painting the street, buskers have been enticed there and even a yoga event was down there on Wednesday.

The germ of the idea was first planted by Dudley Maier in 2011, but he was voted down, only getting support from Cr John Pintabona and fellow council-retiree Warren McGrath.

It was revived under new place manager David Doy, winning unanimous support to get off the ground for a trial.

If you want to weigh in on the idea you can head down to the corner before August 8, and there’s a community forum there on August 2 at 10am.

THERE was literally blood on the floor at Vincent council Tuesday after plains-clothed rangers wrestled Leederville trader Stuart Lofthouse to the ground during an attempt to eject him from the public gallery.

The Greens and Co cafe owner was left bloodied by the struggle, which resulted in four police attending. He claimed he’d been grabbed by the penis but that was disputed by witnesses.

Moments before, neighbouring trader Debbie Saunders had been at the microphone to oppose council plans for a new million-dollar bike lane down Oxford Street.

Mr Lofthouse and Ms Saunders are regular attendees at council meetings and vocal critics of the way the council is run.

Ms Saunders had referred to a table in the bike plan report as “stupidly” laid out and asked “why are there so many incompetent people working at this council?”

Mayor John Carey asked for the remark to be withdrawn.

“You’re a bit precious, sunshine,” Mr Lofthouse scoffed from the back of the gallery.

“I will ask you and Stuart to leave the chamber,” Mr Carey told Ms Saunders.

“You’re going to have to physically remove me,” Mr Lofthouse replied, urging the mayor to call the police.

Mr Carey ordered a 15-minute recess and elected members left the chamber.

Once gone, two burly men stood from their places in the public gallery’s front row and approached Mr Lofthouse, asking him to leave.

“Don’t touch me. Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m asking who the hell you are.

“You’re going to manhandle me out of here?”

One of the men produced a card, identifying them as rangers.

When Mr Lofthouse refused to leave the pair attempted to physically remove him. Mr Lofthouse said at one point “let go of my penis!” but a witness said “it certainly didn’t appear as though the squirrel grip had been applied”. Mr Lofthouse was wrestled to the floor and held in place.

Acting council CEO Mike Rootsey says “the matter escalated after Mr Lofthouse put one of our officers in a headlock and threw a number of punches”. However, the Voice saw no punches or headlocks.

As rangers held Mr Lofthouse down, Ms Saunders approached, grabbing a ranger by the shoulder.

Acting community services director Jacinta Anthony intervened. “You touch my staff and I’ll touch you,” the bureaucrat warned Ms Saunders.

Cr Josh Topelberg advised the trio on the ground “that’s enough” as police were on their way.

The rangers allowed Mr Lofthouse back up, his forehead bloodied. Blood was spattered on the carpet where a once-orderly rows of chairs had been knocked aside.

“That escalated quickly,” a cyclist in the audience murmured.

Locals sat quietly till police arrived and the scene remained calm as two cops invited Mr Lofthouse and Ms Saunders downstairs to give a statement, and they quietly left with them. Mr Lofthouse denied putting anyone in a headlock and said he’d only grabbed a ranger’s legs as he was going to ground.

The meeting resumed without the Leederville traders, with Mr Carey offering this statement to the audience: “There must be mutual respect for all sides regardless of the views expressed. All we ask as a council is this: That we have a respectful debate, that we treat each other with respect, that we do not denigrate people.

“We would not tolerate that in our schoolgrounds, we would not tolerate that in our workplaces, and we should not tolerate it in a council environment.”

Mr Rootsey says it is “yet to be determined” whether the council will pursue legal action.

“The city will be reviewing its standing orders and security for future council meetings to ensure a safe environment where all members of community, staff and council members can speak and work without fear or recrimination,” he says.

by DAVID BELL

PLAINS-CLOTHED rangers were planted in the public gallery Tuesday because council bosses had a feeling something might happen.

“There has been an escalating increase of non-compliance with the presiding member’s instructions at recent meetings, and also an increase in abusive emails to both staff and councillors in recent weeks,” acting CEO Mike Rootsey said.

“There has been increasing concern [at] the levels of abuse and the volatile manner at council meetings and in email communications.”

It was well-known that Debbie Saunders and Stuart Lofthouse had “strong opposing views” regarding the council’s bike plan and, given their “past history of non-adherence” to standing orders, Mr Rootsey says “it was thought prudent to have the officers present as a precaution in the event that any action was needed to be taken”.

Prior to the meeting another member of the public had been asked to leave for abusing staff, and that person then made threatening phone calls.
“Therefore in the interest of the safety and security of the staff and councillors at the meeting the two officers were asked to attend.”

As for why the rangers were not in uniform, Mr Rootsey says it may have been seen “as provocative”.

“We were not trying to create a confrontational atmosphere. They were both working. It should be noted that both officers prior to taking any action clearly identified themselves by displaying their photo IDs which indicates that they are authorised persons in accordance with the local government act 1995.”

Rangers are almost never seen at Vincent council meetings but may now become regular fixtures.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT council approved a million-dollar bike path for Leederville’s Oxford Street Tuesday.

Oxford Street’s Tzanis Palioudakis submitted a 75-signature petition signed by himself and neighbours opposing the project, saying “there is a dedicated bike path along Britannia Reserve which is in place and working fine”.

He fears cyclists will end up under the cars of residents reversing out of their driveways.

Cafe owners Stuart Lofthouse and Debbie Saunders also oppose the plan (see front page).

But cyclist Geraldine Box is all for it, saying roads currently feel like “unwelcoming traffic-dominated corridors”.

Marti Hughes told councillors he’d recently been hit by a car and fully supported more bike lanes.

“I was riding on the road and I truly believe that if I was on a bike path that accident wouldn’t have happened. “I got two kids age nine and seven, and I want to be able to enable them, as they get older, to move around the Town of Vincent… without having to rely on mum’s taxi to get there.”

Jeremey Murray is CEO of Bicycling WA and he says the new lane “will have a dramatic impact on the level of cycling within the city”.

“I do accept that it’s a lot of money to spend on one kilometre of road,” Cr Josh Topelberg noted, but added it wasn’t going to get any cheaper.

The lane will be installed north of Vincent Street.

by DAVID BELL

IT’S taken lots of olives but the first stage of North Perth primary school’s nature playground has been built.

The cash was raised thanks to schoolkids who picked clean the trees of willing locals who donated their fruit, along with a $2000 grant from Vincent council.

The 52-metre disused area has been transformed into a natural-style playground with tunnels, balance logs, stepping stones and bamboo to weave through.

Sonia Hills from the P&C says inspiration came from a presentation by Natureplay WA’s Griffin Longley and UK childhood expert Tim Gill. The idea behind nature play is to get kids out of sanitised plastic playgrounds and let them have some unstructured play, use imaginations, and maybe even scrape some knees and get a bit dirty.

Within two minutes of being let loose on the new area, kids had reimagined logs as “a crocodile pit” containing treasure, and doom for any who fell.

For the next stage the P&C is hoping to install metal bin lids for kids to play drums on, so if anyone has some spare old bins lying around get in touch at nppspresident@gmail.com

by DAVID BELL.

THE Maylands Hawkers Markets has been put on ice by Bayswater city council, leaving locals fuming.

Despite a committee recommendation to approve an extension, the council voted Tuesday to defer a decision until August. Mayor Sylvan Albert cast the deciding vote.

Catherine Ehrhardt, who runs a group planning to take the markets over from the local Lions club, says the decision makes it all-but impossible for her to get the markets running again before the lucrative pre-Christmas period.

“We needed the council to approve in order to start building sponsorship,” she says.

“We can’t start applying for grants without knowing for sure when or if the proposal will actually go ahead.”

Ms Ehrhardt says she’s now approaching other councils and if any show more commitment than Bayswater, she’ll move the markets. “It’s a real shame, because since when was adding vibrancy into a community a negative thing? It would have been an all inclusive and positive thing for the community as well as the shire.”

The markets were held in the open space between The Rise and Maylands Hall, but the council is worried about parking. Ms Ehrhardt says that’s a red herring: “The majority of our market-goers are either walkers or riders. It forces me to think there’s an added agenda.”

The markets’ Facebook site was overrun by disgruntled locals following the decision, expressing anger at Mayor Albert. Many said they would vote for a new council at the October election. “We should band together and vote in councillors/mayors who aren’t anti their own community,” posted Chris Manos.

by ASHLEIGH SCAIFE