Perth Voice Interactive

BEAUFORT STREET landlords are fuming after being issued bills for shopfront alterations made by Stirling city council and the WA government during their road-widening program.

They say the bills are inflated and if they’d been able to get the work done themselves, it would have cost a fraction of what’s being sought.

Astor Theatre owner Bruno Zimmermann is lodging a freedom of information request after being invoiced $13,551—more than four times what he says the work should have cost him.

He was livid when the council removed an awning on the building he owns at the corner of Second Ave, later installing a “new” $27,000 replacement.

“Stirling council want me to cover half the cost of the new awning,” he says.

“I’m happy to contribute, but my builder quoted me around $6000 to do it and Stirling paid $27,000.

“To add insult to injury the new awning has been made using metal recycled from the old one, some of which is rusted.

“It’s a joke, I’m lodging an FOI so I can examine the tender process—under regulations at least three contractors should provide quotes.”

Andrew McIlroy owns Rock Inn in Mr Zimmerman’s building: with no awning for three months over summer he put black tarp over windows to stop guitars warping.

“Some people thought we were closed,” he says.

“It will cost me at least $7500 for new signs and drapes to fit the replacement awning.”

Kevin’s Deli landlord Aniello Pizzolante is also unhappy after being billed $12,000 for a replacement awning.

Stirling council engineer Jon Offer says affected businesses were informed in June the council would pay to trim the awnings, but owners would have to pay half the cost “of rectifying defects that had arisen from a lack of maintenance”.

“In many ways [businesses are] fortunate that the bus lane project is underwriting much of their obligation to remediate a poorly maintained structure in their ownership,” he says.

“In the case of the awning to the Rock Inn, the structural engineer reported a critical defect which required either the immediate closure of the footpath or support props to the awning as the awning was structurally unsound and dangerous.

“The owner was advised the sheeting was capable of being reused and was offered the opportunity to have this replaced with new sheeting at an additional cost—he declined that offer.”

Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland says it is preposterous that landlords and shop owners should foot the bill for costs caused by public roadworks, especially given Stirling council reported a healthy surplus last year.

“This requirement came about as a result of a government road project,” he says.

“It is a basic tenet for all tiers of government that citizens do not get billed for costs imposed on them as a result of public works being undertaken.

“I have written to Stirling council and transport minister Dean Nalder requesting that the two government entities bear the costs of the work.”

Beaufort Street is being widened as part of a trial to create a bus route that will ultimately extend through Perth and to UWA and the QEII medical centre.

The year-long roadworks have irked some traders (“Trading pains,” Voice, March 29, 2014) who say it’s taking too long and costing them too much business.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

BEAUFORT STREET is being revived with a slew of big developments on the horizon.

Low foot traffic, empty buildings, an invasion of bars and the exodus of independent retailers has left the once-thriving street down in the dumps.

“We’re at risk that Beaufort Street, that northern end, simply becomes a ghost town,” Vincent mayor John Carey warns.

But now one of those big empty spots, the arcade just south of Walcott Street, will soon be redeveloped after a year of dilapidated vacancy.

Antonio’s Continental Deli moved out after 16 years because it couldn’t secure a permanent lease, and fashion fiend Susi Rigg from Vintage Tatt also called it a day in part because month-to-month leases were too uncertain.

Tanpopo sushi had earlier moved across the road, the butcher shot through, and the Lucky Dollar Lottery Kiosk moved a couple doors down to make way for the big project.

The Scolaro family which owns the building plans to upgrade the arcade and install three shops, three restaurants, a takeaway food joint and a small bar with a laneway open to the public running down the middle.

‘It’s incredible, it’s giving three retail shops to Beaufort Street, it’s giving us a laneway’

Vincent councillors swooned over the plan.

“It’s incredible, it’s giving three retail shops to Beaufort Street, it’s giving us a laneway,’ gushed Mr Carey, who formerly chaired the Beaufort Street Network.

In reference to the laneway, Cr Josh Topelberg said the council usually had to “beg developers to do that”.

The owners won a big bonus when the council waived about $30,000 of cash-in-lieu for inadequate parking. Crs Ros Harley and James Peart both supported the development, but wanted to defer it so planning staff weren’t relying on maths on the fly.

Further south along the street, the development at the corner of Barlee and Beaufort Streets is finally moving ahead: Danny Psaros came on board to finish the project that had stalled when industrial digging damaged neighbouring buildings.

The old Allure site, empty since the furniture shop moved out last year, is being converted to an eco cafe.

And down at the corner of Harold Street, Ken McFarlane’s multi-storey mixed use project is finishing up to offer more retail space on the ground level.

by DAVID BELL

“YOU’RE neglecting the community,” Dudley Maier told Vincent council this week.

The former veteran councillor labelled community consultation over the Beaufort Street arcade development as abysmal.

He pointed out that according to the council’s own map of who had been sent a consultation form, council carparks had been sent four.

Several mistakes in the report would’ve seen the developer have to pay an extra $20,000 in cash-in-lieu for missing car bays, he said. Corrections were made on the fly.

Upset with the council’s consultation effort, Mr Maier printed 70 flyers himself to let locals know they should “contact your council members before Tuesday’s meeting and voice your concerns about the lack of consultation and the potential for this development to have a negative impact on parking in your street, particularly at night”.

He says he thinks it’s a good development, but cash-in-lieu for missing carbays shouldn’t be waived, as it could be used as a bargaining tool to get more retail instead of more bars.

Cr Emma Cole, who’d run for council on a platform of improving community consultation, conceded letters to carparks was “not our finest hour”.

“I think it’s fair criticism,” Mayor John Carey noted. He said 75 letters were issued and a review was underway into expanding the consultation footprint.

THE bizarre instruments came first, but when French troupe La Fausse Compagnie read Maylands artist/author Shaun Tan’s The Arrival it was a case of art imitating art, imitating life.

“We discover at the beginning of our show picture of street musicians [in Tan’s book]. It is coincidence because we have here,” Thomas Le Saulnier told the Voice, pointing to the comical instruments lining the walls of his French home.

The show Le Chant des Pavillons (Song of the Horns) is based on The Arrival, a story in pictures of being a stranger in a strange country, told through a “delightfully weird marriage of strings, horns and vocals”.

“We try with character and show to connect and show emotion only with music, without words,” Le Saulnier says.

La Fausse Compagnie is amongst scores of acts heading to Fremantle for the annual Fremantle Street Arts Festival, being held on the Easter long weekend April 19 to 21.

Programs are available at the Fremantle library, or online.

by JENNY D’ANGER

A 52-YEAR-OLD man was admitted to hospital after being brutally beaten at Yokine bowling club on a Sunday afternoon.

Shane Manners was relaxing in the club when a man and woman entered the bar around 5pm to try to buy “shooters”.

The barman refused to serve them as they weren’t members or with guests, so the pair went outside and started running on the carefully manicured greens.

Mr Manners says he went outside to politely ask them to stop.

“Suddenly another man ran out from behind a wall, at the corner of the green, and started getting laid into me,” he told the Voice. “After that I remember getting thrown against a brick wall.

“Then the other bloke started kicking my head and punching me as well; the girl was in the background yelling abuse.

“The doctor at Royal Perth Hospital said I was lucky to be alive after receiving so many blows to the head.”

Mr Manners suffered a fractured nose and needed stitches above his eye and 10 days after the attack has trouble breathing through his nose: “It’s really bad timing, because I’ve just started a job in a tile warehouse and now I have to take at least two weeks off—I’ve got bills to pay,” he says.

Mr Manners is on the club committee and has been a  member for 10 years: he says the attack won’t stop him returning.

“The whole thing was pretty traumatic but you can’t hide away and let these morons beat you—I’m determined to get out and about and get on with things.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THIEVES have nicked a mobility-impaired man’s electric bike, robbing him of his primary means of getting around.

East Perth man Ves Gorecki’s right leg was injured last year, leaving him unable to drive or walk more than short distances.

“I cannot drive a car, my leg is not functioning,” he says. “I cannot [drive] because my foot is numb, and I cannot feel the pedal. I am a dangerous driver if I do this.”

The bike was a Christmas present to himself: his insurance expired two weeks before the theft.

He’s now struggling to get around on an old pushbike, but when cramps hit he’s immobilised: “I am like without leg,” says the Polish immigrant.

“They dropped the bicycle into a flashy Holden, an expensive one, and ran away.”

The bike was stolen outside Inglewood’s Bunnings on April 3. There was nothing to lock the bike to, so he’d chained the wheel and risked a quick trip inside, hoping its 28kg and immobile wheels would make it too hard to nick.

“When I left [the shop] my bicycle wasn’t there,” he sighs.

Another patron said he’d seen a man pick up the bike and run off with it.

“They dropped the bicycle into a flashy Holden, an expensive one, and ran away.”

There’s only a couple of these kinds of bikes in WA, and the thief will likely be looking for a charger since “after some 45km it will be useless,” Mr Gorecki says.

He’s called local e-bike shops and the distributer in Melbourne, warning them to be on the lookout for someone picking up that rare model.

The bike is a white Aseako Alto, and Mr Gorecki is offering a $250 reward for information leading to its recovery in good condition. Call him on 0457 566 785 if you’ve seen anything.

by DAVID BELL

A POLICE crackdown on synthetic drugs sold in Perth has left users few options for their next fix.

The Voice understands raids last week targeted Joynt Venture and adult stores in Perth, with stocks of synthetic cannabis removed.

The blitz follows charges laid last month against a 15-year-old boy who’d allegedly supplied four boarding school students with what is believed to be synthetic LSD. The City Beach Residential College boys were admitted to hospital, with one placed on life support.

Police confirmed Wednesday the raids had occurred.

“There were a number of warrants issued on Perth CBD businesses from which a number of substances were seized for analysis,” a spokesman said.

No charges had been laid and he did not know when a chemical analysis would be complete.

The spokesman stressed synthetic drugs were a global issue because “legislation follows the development of the drug”.

“The manufacturer will change the chemical composition which means it’s no longer illegal and legislation has to be changed, which takes time.”

The Voice understands stocks of synthetic cannabis, which is dressed up as incense, will not be replenished until the end of the month, with one source saying it will take time to source the stuff from China.

by EDDIE ALBRECHT

NORTHBRIDGE neighbours came together last weekend with international street artists to spruce up their laneway between Moir and Lake Streets.

The laneway has been hit hard by tagger vandals nearly every night: resident David McLoughlin noticed a wall with a mural never seemed to get tagged.

“I’ve been there four or five years, and there’s not been one tag on it,” he says. “There’s this etiquette that you don’t tag over someone else’s work.”

He got to chatting with seasoned artist Stormie Mills whom he’d commissioned to paint an interior wall in his house, and they came up with the idea to make good use of all the mural artists in town for Form’s Public Art in the City project.

Locals funded the day themselves, with paint donated by the Butcher shop and boxes of stubbies from Feral brewery. They invited neighbours on the quiet to try to keep things informal.

“I reckon over the day there would have been a couple of hundred at one stage it was quite thronging in there,” Mr McLoughlin told the Voice. “The cops turned up, had a look around, said ‘have a good party’ and left!”

About 12 works were done on the day, including Mills’ rendition of an old timer on the street named Tony.

The locals hope more people will walk through the lane now it’s been tarted up, making it less desirable for vandals.

Mr McLoughlin says there’s still room for more murals and the locals plan to offer up space to emerging artists.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT councillors have turned down an opportunity to hire Belgian street artist Roa to paint a toilet block in Birdwood Square.

Roa’s in Perth for Form’s Public: Art in the City project, and the chance came along to pay him $15,000 to paint one of his world-famous animal murals (the price is half his usual fee).

Vincent councillors weren’t keen on handing $15,000 to a foreign artist.

“My personal preference is to use local artists,” Cr Matt Buckels said. “Fifteen-thousand-dollars is a lot of money.”

Mayor John Carey says the council’s usual mural budget is just $12,000 and so far this year it’s scored four murals for that money.

“My personal preference is to use local artists”

Some $40,000 of Vincent money had already been spent on the Form project and spending another $15,000 was excessive, he said.

“I think it’s a poor allocation of the community’s funds. We’re not the department of culture and arts.”

by DAVID BELL

EIGHTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD volunteer Max Lurie has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2014 community champions award.

For nine years he has recruited volunteers to refurbish discarded computers and sent them to children in developing countries.

Over the past 10 years the group has delivered more than 2000 PCs to orphanages, schools and charity organisations throughout Tanzania, Burma, Kenya, Cameroon and Zambia.

It diverts thousands more from landfill by restoring them and giving them to Australian seniors, pensioners, students and others who find it hard to afford new technology.

The operation is run by the Perth Lions Club but most work is done by local volunteers, including kids with disabilities.

Mr Lurie says even PCs too far gone for repair can be cannibalised for 95 per cent of their parts: “Every Wednesday volunteers gather to complete the sorting, refurbishing, and packaging of the donated equipment ready for shipment.

“This provides an outlet for those individuals to enjoy the company of like-minded people in the knowledge that they ‘get out of the house’ for one day a week and that the effort put in is to the advantage of needy people all over our planet.”

The season’s community champions award will be named April 28.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK