THE days of Bayswater councillors being farewelled with a ratepayer-funded cocktail bash and $1000 could soon be over.

Bayswater Residents’ Association president Tony Green tabled a motion at last week’s AGM of electors for the tradition to end.

The motion will go before council in January.

Mr Green says the largesse is no longer relevant given the salaries and allowances tribunal board dramatically increased allowances, fees and expenses awarded to councillors in June.

Bayswater councillors can each claim up to $33,000 a year and the mayor up to $136,000.

“Now that elected members get paid a living wage, with the mayor receiving a higher wage than our local state MP, there is no need for them to receive this extra payment when they leave council,” Mr Green says.

“And why do ratepayers need to pay for a cocktail do for councillors when they leave? It’s ridiculous.

“This policy is left over from the days when elected members were not paid at all, and in that environment it made some sense. In today’s environment it most certainly does not.”

Departing Bayswater councillors receive $100 for each year of service—capped at $1000—and may opt for an “informal cocktail function” to be held in their honour.

Deputy mayor Mike Sabatino refuses to say if he thinks the gifts are still appropriate.

“A cocktail function is optional and the gift certificate is provided in accordance with the council policy,” he says.

Cr Stephanie Coates, elected in October, says the gifts should be reviewed.

“I think for new councillors going forward it would be good to review the system, given the update by the salaries tribunal,” she says. “But it’s nice to recognise councillors who have been there for 20-odd years and didn’t get the benefits we get now. To not recognise them would be a bit harsh.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A LOOMING Australia-wide ban soon to be introduced on wireless microphones could ruin small businesses and non-profit clubs and cost the WA education department millions.

The owner of a local PA hire company says the ban will cost his firm $40,000 to replace or retune just 30 items of equipment.

The powerful Australian Communications and Media Authority has decreed that anyone using a wireless microphone in the 694–820 megahertz range must switch it off by January 2015 or face steep fines or gaol time.

The change is happening because the former Labor government sold the frequencies’ licences to Telstra and Optus for fat fees, or what have been dubbed a “digital dividend”.

“This law is useless and a big inconvenience to a lot of people,” says Simon Tarrant from Freo PA Hire.

“This law could ruin businesses—and especially not-for-profit organisations: The cost of having to buy a new system would be too great for many of them and would have serious effects. If we arrange a sale or long-term hire of a product which turns out to be ineffective after only a few months, the customer base is going to hold bad opinions and regard us poorly for selling them this product—when the reality is that the government changed the laws on us.”

He has joined a campaign calling on the Abbott government to compensate anyone affected by the decision.

The Australian Wireless Audio Group estimates 80 per cent of wireless devices in Australia—150,000 individual pieces of equipment—may end up on the scrapheap.

“This is a public policy disaster in-waiting,” AWAG head Ian Harvey says.

He says new communications minister Malcolm Turnbull must sort out a transition plan, as small users such as churches, musicians and fitness instructors wouldn’t have a clue they would soon be breaking the law.

He says wireless audio devices help generate $34 billion in economic activity every year.

The WA education department is checking on whether it has a plan to replace wireless devices, and whether individual schools will have to find the money to replace equipment.

by KYFFIN HAMMOND-CHATE

 

A RARE heritage-listed cottage on Brookman Street must be rebuilt after an engineer’s report found “very little of the original building… can be practically retained”.

Brookman Street and nearby Moir Street are a one-of-a-kind precinct of affordable housing from the late 19th century.

Because of the rarity of an intact clump together, a blanket state heritage protection applies to the 58 houses on the streets which marks them  as “conservation essential”.

But number 26 is falling to pieces and will have to be rebuilt. Owners George Karpathakis and Judith Pugh applied to Vincent council for “deconstruction and reconstruction” of the house.

The state heritage council wants the reconstruction to be done to exact details based on measurements taken from the original. One commenter made a submission to council stating “the property should not have been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair due to neglect”.

Ms Pugh told councillors “our property was bastardised by many generations of people before we owned it, there’s very little original material left”.

Earlier this year the council prosecuted the owner of nearby 4 Brookman Street for failing to maintain the property. That house has since been sold.

by DAVID BELL

A MOVE by Stirling city council to cut red tape for developers and fast-track building applications has split council staff and councillors.

The council voted that development applications should no longer be required for single houses that comply with the council’s planning scheme and are outside heritage zones.

The onus will now be on the applicant to ensure their application is compliant, as they no longer have to submit an application to be scrutinised.

Council staffers argue the move may increase their workload, not reduce it.

“…the effort required to monitor this situation by the city would be significant,” staffers warned the council.

“With these changes the city would have minimal input into single houses.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE Leederville carnival organisers have turned to crowd-funding to help pay their bills.

Director Jimmy Murphy took to pozible.com to ask the public to chip in, with local businesses pitching in free meals for generous donors.

Despite the wild success of the event—40,000 compared to last year’s 24,000—“we are down about $4000,” Mr Murphy wrote. “Most cost blowouts were in street closures, entertainment and infrastructure.”

In November $3410 was pledged through Pozible but it was never paid because the $5000 goal wasn’t reached.

This time around the organisers have set the goal at $4000 and have pulled in $2290 with 30 days to go.

THE Water Corporation has pulled the plug on its $150 million facelift in Leederville, announcing the project has been “indefinitely delayed”.

Vincent council had approved the massive project in October 2011, allowing the Water Corp to knock down its two-storey HQ and build six towers, each between 10 and 27 storeys tall.

These were to feature restaurants, offices, shops, 240 units, parking blocks and a child care centre. But as time wore on no ground was broken, and corporation spokesperson Jaselyn O’Sullivan now says the plan is “indefinitely delayed … and is unlikely to go ahead in the current economic climate which could mean a potential delay of a number of years”.

Ms O’Sullivan says it was “under contract with a buyer for the site however this contract did not proceed to settlement due to reasons on the buyer’s behalf”.

“Other options were considered however Water Corporation made the decision not to proceed with the development at this time due to a change in market conditions.”

Vincent mayor John Carey says “it’s disappointing when you see major projects from the private or government sector not proceed, but at the same time we’re making things happen and the future of Leederville is bright”.

He says Leederville had several big wins through the week with the council approving:

• a new farmer’s market, which received widespread support from the public gallery;

• in principle support for a new nature playground;

• $260,000 upgrades to Newcastle Street with a spruced up road and new trees going in;

• a contractor chosen for the new $225,000 playground on Oxford Street Reserve.

“If I talk about things that are really going to change Leederville, it’s what we approved last night, not waiting on a major development that quite frankly there were various views on,” Mr Carey says.

by DAVID BELL

Stories by DAVID BELL:

VINCENT mayor John Carey is furious Perth city council has secretly polled his ratepayers.

Perth-appointed pollsters have been phoning Vincent residents asking questions about amalgamations, including whether they want their small council’s suburbs to be kept together, and how they’d feel about being in Perth.

Mr Carey says he recently met with Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and PCC CEO Gary Stevenson who told him they wanted “a positive, constructive relationship”.

The next thing he knows, Perth is doing cross-border patrols.

The PCC for its part told Mr Carey it had kept mum in case Vincent tried to use the polling to gain publicity and skew the result. “I think it’s extremely disappointing,” Mr Carey says. “It’s a desperate measure. They are now desperately seeking out any tactic they can to stop Vincent going into Perth.”

Vincent wants to be taken lock, stock and barrel into Perth instead of being split down the middle.

Perth council only wants Vincent’s business areas, hoping the northern half will go into Stirling.

“They don’t want 21,000 voters coming into a new electoral system that, quite frankly, is going to shake things up in a good way because they’re going to have to be accountable to an active residential base,” Mr Carey says.

Perth CEO Gary Stevenson confirmed he’d authorised the polling which also covered parts of Crawley and Nedlands. He says his council is “entitled to reach out to adjacent communities to inform itself and be better prepared to respond to the local government advisory board’s enquiry in early 2014”.

“The survey was done discreetly to give it the greatest chance of being unaffected by any media or other influence.

“I did not tell City of Vincent about the survey initially because it has been very actively engaging its community for months on an uncompromising ‘One in-All in’ proposition and I feared that the survey would become a focus of media attention and commentary that might unduly influence the survey results.”

Mayor thanked for non-existent support

JOHN CAREY says he was surprised to receive a letter from Perth council CEO Gary Stevenson thanking him for a recent meeting and saying “it was important for us to hear your views and support for the City of Perth’s position is appreciated”.

That baffled Mr Carey, who doesn’t support Perth’s position to take only a small amount of Vincent instead of the whole thing.

Mr Stevenson’s letter also suggested Mr Carey write to the premier and local MPs to make his views known. We asked the PCC if the letter was a balls-up, but they couldn’t respond before deadline as the CEO is on holiday.

KIDS will be pleased to know, with Christmas around the corner, that there’s more than just fun to online gaming.

A study by Edith Cowan University Associate Professor Mark McMahon (right) has found social and educational benefits too. His evidence refutes the popular view of online gaming as anti-social.

With games becoming more interactive ‘gamers’ often complete objectives as a team. These environments are what the research has found assists with building social skills as players talk with one another and learn to work as a team.

“They’re often strategising, managing complex tasks and forming and managing teams,” Mr McMahon says.

With society now well connected to technology, gamers online can be socialising in another dimension, with people from different countries, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.

“A strong reason young adults play games isn’t for escapism but for social interaction.” Mr McMahon says.

He has researched the gaming world’s effects and come up with social and educational benefits. It seems children aren’t wholly to blame for the dominance of playing online either as adults make up 76 per cent of gamers.

The added bonus of Mr McMahon’s study are the educational benefits of games designed to train and educate people in fields like the military, education and public health. In one example “doctors and nurses” communicate in a virtual surgery game. They talk to one another through the game as they would in surgery, going through the steps which build similar emotion and pressure that a text book would fail to convey.

“A chaotic virtual world can recreate some of that stress,” Mr McMahon explains.

He says the negative side of the gaming world has been over-emphasised, but a lot of it has to do with generational misunderstanding: It wasn’t so long ago that Elvis Presley was denounced for bringing “devil music” to our living rooms, and leading young girls astray with his swivelling hips.

by PHILIPPA BOURKE

THE first sods have been turned on the new $11.2 million Mt Lawley primary school.

Construction should be completed by the end of next year, in time for enrolments in 2015.

The 100-year-old school was burnt down in July 2012 and the teenage arsonists sentenced to eight months’ gaol.

The Mount Lawley Society and hundreds of locals successfully lobbied for the Second Avenue brick facade to be retained in the new design, after a leaked report from the WA education department stated the most “cost-effective” measure was to entirely bulldoze the fire-ravaged school.

MLS president Bruce Wooldridge is relieved construction is finally underway.

“Under the released design, the significance of the original building to Mount Lawley has been respected and the character and appearance of the Second Avenue frontage is unmistakably in line with our expectations,” he says.

“It is an excellent outcome from both an educational and heritage perspective.

“Our position was always that these two objectives were not mutually exclusive, a view that was shared by the wider community.”

The school will include a two-storey building with 12 classrooms, an inclusive education classroom, a dental therapy unit, refurbished library and hard courts.

Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland is pleased the school community has been involved in the redesign: “This will be a wonderful new school that will reflect the heritage of the site whilst providing a modern school.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK