Perth Voice Interactive

THE long and dusty saga of Claisebrook’s concrete plants has an end in sight with an intricate land swap plan in the works.

The Cook government plans to shift the plants out of the neighbourhood, but residents are dead against any deal that’d extend their approval to operate beyond the current June 30, 2024 expiry.

The two plants, one owned by Hanson and one own by Holcim, have operated out of the area on rolling time-limited approvals since the early 2000s.

Dust

Residents have long wanted them gone, saying the dust, noise and heavy trucks are holding back an area that’s ripe for rejuvenation.

Their current approval to operate runs to mid-2024, but neither is ready to move. 

Holcim is planning to eventually move its Claisebrook operations to a site in Welshpool once it’s upgraded, but has asked the WA Planning Commission to approve another seven years of operation in the meantime. 

So far Holcim’s global head office in Zurich hasn’t approved the move to Welshpool.

Hanson has found a new potential home in Vincent council’s current depot in Osborne Park, having “immediately expressed a keen interest” when offered the site, according to a Vincent report.

It’s a good spot for truck access, and Hanson was asked to find a suitable site to trade for a new Vincent depot.

It couldn’t find one. 

Instead the state government recently offered up a soon-to-be-decommissioned Western Power depot in Claremont. Hanson has also asked the WAPC for an extension until the land juggle is complete. The whole process will likely take “years, not months,” according to Vincent’s planning staff. 

One bargaining chip the concrete companies hold is that while their operation has an expiry date, there’s no requirement to remove the buildings or decontaminate the site, meaning they could move out and leave them there. Similar industrial sites have been left dormant for years because they’re so prohibitively expensive to clean up, becoming favoured haunts for vandals, urban explorers and city campers. 

Hanson has said it will decontaminate the site as part of the relocation deal, but Holcim hasn’t put anything on the table yet. 

Residents want the WAPC to reject any extension.

Damage

At the November 14 Vincent council briefing, resident Trish Brown said “the damage of a further extension to the progress, investment in, and development of the Claisebrook precinct cannot be underestimated, as we are all aware the current uses are not compatible with the area.

“Ample time has been provided to both companies to genuinely progress with the relocation and to enable Claisebrook to capitalise on its very unique development potential.”

Ratepayer David Di Prospero said he’d been coming to council about this issue many times over the years, dating back to Nick Catania’s term as mayor.

He said the area was ripe for rejuvenation and would be a prime spot for the kind of affordable housing the state and federal governments have been calling for.

“What’s required is another area of very affordable housing close to the city that will do much more good for the area… rather than having these two concrete batching plants who think they’re allowed, or should be allowed, to stay.”

Mr Di Prospero said he recalled there was once thriving residential populations in Claisebrook long before the plants moved in.

Population

“[It’s] a great place to start up a new population. I’ve seen people living in that area back in the 60s in the 70s… but the area has been deprived of a population, and I can’t understand any government agreeing to actually let that happen,” given the plants can just make concrete elsewhere.

Vincent councillors will vote on whether to endorse the land swap deal at their full meeting on November 21. Staff have recommended they endorse the plan to vacate the depot for Hanson and shift over to the old Western Power site, and suggested council “agrees not to object to the shortest possible extension to Hanson’s current planning approval, in order to undertake a smooth and orderly relocation”. 

The staff recommendation advises council to object “in the strongest possible terms to any extension to Holcim’s planning approval in Claisebrook”.

Ahead of the meeting mayor Alison Xamon penned a letter to Mr Carey, who’s also the planning minister, expressing “council and our community’s great disappointment that the two concrete batching plants in Claisebrook have still not finalised their permanent relocation”.

Her letter says: “The City of Vincent also considers the decommissioning, decontamination, and demolition of these plants is a matter of regional importance which would enable high-density mixed-use development immediately adjoining the Claisebrook train station.

“There is no planning nor economic justification to allow these two batching plants operations to continue to sterilise a strategic urban redevelopment site”.

by DAVID BELL

A DRUG crisis centre has been approved for a residential street in Vincent after local councillors were outvoted by state-appointed panel members. 

The state government wants to set up an “immediate drug assistance coordination centre” in an empty building at 37-43 Stuart Street Perth, to be operated by not-for-profit Cyrenian House (“Drug help centre has residents up in arms,” Voice, November 11 2023).

The 24/7 centre would be equipped with two vans to pick up people across the city for treatment or crisis accommodation with 10 short-term beds on site.

Out of nearly 200 submissions about the proposal, about 85 per cent were against, with locals concerned about noise and more anti-social behaviour in the area.

Residents urged the Joint Development Assessment Panel to reject the centre, having no confidence that Cyrenian House’s behaviour management plan would adequately keep residents safe given their experience with similar nearby facilities. 

“We have personally experienced that the successful management monitoring and enforcement is a challenge for all involved,” Tiegan Firios said at the November 10 JDAP meeting.

“We have two lived examples in front of you here about how such plans have failed.

“They’ve had no impact on the daily antisocial behaviour of those who interact with those properties, nor have they provided sustained resolution following the complaints procedure.”

Nearby community housing on Fitzgerald Street has a “well-written management plan,” Ms Firios said, “but quite regularly we see incidents of domestic violence, thrown objects and bleach thrown from high level balconies,” along with discarded liquor bottles, wine bags and drug paraphernalia, while alcohol and drug-affected people loitered in the laneway and Robertson Park.

The building Cyrenian wants to move into is currently in bad shape: It was built in the 1950s as Masters Dairy, then was used as offices for a while but has been empty for a few years. They argue they’ll be a safer use than the current empty building, which attracts break-ins and vandals. 

Cyrenian House’s chief operating officer James Hunter said: “We understand the issues that are around that area at the moment, and we actually think that our presence there and activating that building, and running it in the way that will run it, will improve the amenity and safety of that site. 

“That’s been our experience at our other sites and we don’t see any particular reason why that wouldn’t be the case here.”

Vincent planning staff had recommended the JDAP reject the centre, saying that under state planning rules and their own planning scheme this centre “is neither compatible with or complimentary to and would not enhance the amenity or character of the existing residential developments in the locality”.

Cyrenian brought in expert planning lawyer Paul McQueen, who said the courts had been clear that such developments were allowable under planning law. Mr McQueen said the existing amenity must be taken into account, and he noted the concerns over existing troubles nearby meant “it’s not a pristine, quiet residential environment and that’s consistent with the fact that it’s high density in an inner city location”.

“Our role is to help people with addiction, which we’ve been doing for a long time, and as a consequence, the community benefits from that,” he said. 

“We are not going to be introducing new areas of risk or compromise and so the net effect on amenity… it’ll be neutral at worst, and positive at best,” he said, adding that Cyrenian had committed to regular patrols of the troubled Robertson Park in addition to on-site security.

Mr McQueen also said the “public interest” was a driving factor in similar decisions: “This service would reflect state government public health policy and contribute towards a broader public benefit by reducing and preventing drug related harm to individuals in the community.”

The two Vincent councillors on the JDAP,  Jonathan Hallett and Ashley Wallace, ultimately sided with Vincent planners and voted against the approval. But they were outnumbered by the three state appointed members: Former Bayswater CEO Francesca Lefante, former state planning department director Lee O’Donohue, and seasoned planner and developer John Syme.

Ms Lefante commented that the small number of beds, with just 10 on site, indicated a usage that was not overly “intense”, and said the IDACC may well improve the current troubles in the area and that it was a better use than the current empty building.

by DAVID BELL

TRACKLESS trams such as the one which made its way along Scarborough Beach Road for the first time last week, should be part of the Future of Fremantle discussions says Peter Newman.

The Fremantle resident and professor of sustainability at Curtin University did much of the research leading up to Integrated Transport Solutions Group’s purchase of the Shanghai Electric tram which is being trialled in the City of Stirling.

Prof Newman will be giving a talk about trackless trams at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Beaconsfield on November 19 at 11.30am, the parish have recently taken the decision to go carbon neutral.

“It’s extraordinary after seven years,” he said of his research journey finally culminating with one of the trams being unloaded at Fremantle’s port back in August.

“Josh Byrne was giving a presentation at the WA Maritime Museum for the Future of Fremantle, and the mayor and other dignitaries were there and Josh suddenly stopped and stared out of the window, telling everyone ‘there’s our new trackless tram’; and then everyone crowded around the window to see it being unloaded,” Prof Newman said.

“Trackless trams will be one of the key features of the Future of Fremantle.”

Perth is the only city outside China to have one of Shanghai’s Digital-rail Rapid Transport trams, which is guided by magnetic nails embedded in the road and runs on lithium-ion capacitors which take just a few seconds at each station to top up.

WA’s new trackless tram is being refuelled by solar-based chargers.

Trackless trams often cop the ‘but it’s just a bus’ gibe, but Prof Newman says Perth’s system is a lot more than a bus.

Analyse

“It’s able to go at high speed and looks ahead to analyse the situation, then it transfers the information to its bogeys – that’s what they’re called because it is a train – about what the road ahead is like and it can adjust.”

He says it also feels more like a tram than a bus when you’re aboard.

The trams are pretty autonomous, but there is a driver who has the ability to take over the controls at the push of a button if there’s trouble ahead.

Prof Newman says the trams could operate in the current road space, but says traffic lights should be programmed to change as they approached to keep them moving swiftly through the city.

He also expects a network of stations to be built for the routes, around which developers could build high-density “walkability” precincts.

“I think it’s going to transform our main roads, because people will want to live around those stations,” he said.

The South West Group of councils commissioned a “proof of concept” report in 2020 which backed a trackless tram or light rail system between Fremantle and Murdoch, but Prof Newman says he’s convinced by the former.

“A lot of local governments are trying to think how to get light rail, because Metronet systems are too expensive, but this is a cheaper option.

“It was developed by a rail company to fill a gap to get across the city to their fast rail, but to built a light rail you have to close a street for five years,” he said.

Prof Newman says apart from his talk at St Paul’s on November 19, there will also be a trackless tram symposium on November 22 where people will get a chance to have a ride on Stirling’s new one.

PRIDEFEST returned to Hyde Park for the 2023 Fairday, with thousands descending on the park on November 12.

The official count’s not in yet, but the daytime family-friendly Fairday’s been growing in popularity compared to the evening Pride Parade in recent years, with 37,000 people attending the 2022 Fairday compared to the 30,500 at the 2022 Northbridge Parade.

The increasingly enviable Fairday turnout has prompted Perth to consider pinching the event from Vincent council: Earlier this year lord mayor Basil Zempilas teased that PrideWA might get more funding from Perth in future years if the Fairday was moved within City of Perth bounds.

For this year Perth council just scouted out the event and sought to win hearts and minds, setting up a table in Hyde Park that was described in a city press release as an “enticing stall with incentives for people to get involved and learn about what the City does to support the LGBTQIA+ community”.

AN 11th-hour Cook government offer to fund Perth council’s “Safe Night Space” women’s shelter has been deemed too late to stop the closure, with lord mayor Basil Zempilas saying the building will be “returned to community use”.

In 2021 Perth council opened the SNS in the old Rod Evans Centre on Hay Street in East Perth, a stop-gap measure to provide shelter to women while awaiting more permanent state government housing solutions.

Costing the council about $4 million so far, it was initially due to close in April this year but councillors voted to extend the trial six months to November 30 at a cost of $724,000.

The council now wants to return it to its former use, advertising in October for expressions of interest from community groups who could use it as a meeting space. The centre would undergo some light maintenance and renovations and reopen by February 2024.

At the November 14 council briefing Mr Zempilas said he’d asked the state to help fund the centre a year ago.

 When no funding was forthcoming, he says “in February of this year council confirmed the safe night space would close on November 30. Everybody was given ample notice this closure was coming”.

The ABC reported on November 2 that homelessness minister John Carey said, “the state government wants to see the service continue in its East Perth location and is ready to assist”, but the official offer wouldn’t arrive for another week according to Mr Zempilas.

Mr Zempilas said “at 6pm last Friday [November 10]… just two weeks before the closure, I received a letter from minister Carey saying the state government was now prepared to provide funding to keep the centre operating.

“That offer came at the 11th hour,” he said.

“[The] community had long ago been informed that the Rod Evans Centre, as made clear at the outset of the two-year trial, would be returning to community use.

“It’s what our community told us they wanted. 

“Once some minor maintenance has been completed, beyond November 30 the Rod Evans Centre will return to community use.”

An online petition to “Save the Perth Night Space” was started on November 6, and currently has 1500 signatures and counting.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER a lengthy tender process Vincent’s e-scooter hire scheme rolled out this week, allowing cross-border riding with neighbouring Perth council.

Vincent has picked Neuron Mobility to provide 250 rental e-scooters for a 12-month trial, hireable via an app and charging $1 to unlock the scooter then about 50 cents a minute to ride.

Perth council started its own e-scooter trial in March, but anyone ducking into Vincent territory was hindered by a geofencing feature that stopped their vehicle dead.

In announcing the Vincent roll-out Neuron has spruiked its “cutting-edge safety features”. 

Last month doctors at Melbourne’s St Vincent hospital warned the onslaught of e-scooters had seen 500 patients present to their emergency department since January 2022, with 143 of them admitted to hospital according to The Age.

Neuron’s press release says the scooters they’re providing in Vincent are all equipped with helmets, have an emergency Triple-0 button, voice guidance to advise people to ride safely, and a “topple detection” function which alerts Neuron whenever one has fallen over, hopefully mitigating the number of scooters clogging sidewalks. 

Speeds are capped at 25kmh on bike paths and roads and 10kmh on footpaths and pedestrian crossings.

The council’s also heeded feedback from locals who were concerned the hireable e-scooters would add to the problem of whizzing riders speeding through local parks.

Areas including Hyde Park and Britannia Reserve will be geofenced to stop the scooters from riding on the paths. 

Vincent council is hoping the scooters will encourage locals to get out of their car, as about 67 per cent currently drive to work. The east-west routes in Vincent are also under-served by public transport.

The scooters are hireable as of November 9, and the council’s encouraging people to use them to scoot over to Pride Fairday at Hyde Park on November 12 for a “scootsafe” event. 

The rollout of the network comes as WA-born international music star Donna Simpson was forced to postpone a national tour after breaking several ribs in an e-scooter accident in Broome.

by DAVID BELL

PLANS for an “innovation cluster” in the Bayswater Industrial Area might have to be shelved because its sewerage system it too outdated.

The BIA is a fairly under-utilised industrial zone, but most properties are still on septic systems which deters sizeable companies from setting up.

Bayswater council has been trying to get higher levels of government to shell out for proper pipelines but hasn’t had much luck so far, as the state government prioritises sewerage to residential areas.

Innovation clusters involve an array of businesses and institutions from related industrial fields who benefit from being neighbours.

But they are typically based around a central “hub” like a university or a research institution, to mix research, training and industry. 

A Bayswater staff report provided to councillors this week was blunt about the chances of attracting such an institution: “Without reticulated sewer the BIA is unlikely to be a candidate for redevelopment or considered as a suitable location for an innovation cluster.”

This has meant the council is not ready to jump on an opportunity to start up a cluster proposed by local not-for-profit enterprise Time Arrow Innovation Hub, headquartered on Bassendean Road in the BIA. 

Entrepreneurs

Currently Time Arrow offers a meeting place and training for techies and entrepreneurs involved in renewable energy and carbon-minus manufacturing and building. 

Time Arrow wants to partner with Bayswater council to kick the project into overdrive and create a full-blown innovation cluster, reducing costs for proximate businesses through pooled equipment and economies of scale, and sharing expert knowledge between partnered organisations. 

Bayswater staff have advised councillors that it’s too early to dive into such a partnership given the sewerage situation.

They also want more certainty that the WA Department of Jobs, Science, tourism and Innovation will get on board with Time Arrow’s plan.

Councillor Josh Eveson, who’s been one of the main proponents for improving the BIA, remained optimistic they’d get there eventually.

“I continue to see huge potential in this very under-utilised area of our city: The potential to boost local jobs, the potential to drive future innovation, the potential to update the area for more modern industrial uses, and let’s not forget the potential to maximise the ongoing benefit from the massive state and federal investments that’ve taken place across the city,” Cr Eveson said at the October 31 council meeting. 

For now, councillors voted to continue lobbying the state government for more sewer infrastructure in the BIA, and to have the CEO prepare a report on a ‘holistic’ strategy for the area rather than diving into the Time Arrow partnership.

by DAVID BELL