Perth Voice Interactive

UPDATED: August 13, 2018

The first names are up on Vincent’s street prostitution convictions website.

The names of two men were posted Tuesday after both pleaded guilty May 30 to seeking a prostitute in a public place. One was fined $750 and the other $500.

One of the men who pleaded guilty told the Voice his family was distressed at the conviction and being named on the website “is making it more difficult”.

He said he’d pleaded guilty to get the matter over with quickly rather than going through an extended trial and risking a greater fine: “My family was at stake, my family was in distress. I am suffering now.”

He said he would never reoffend: “I won’t be going back there”.

At Tuesday’s council meeting three locals said the situation seemed to be improving and urged the council to continue with the “name and shame” policy.

One resident said he’d heard there were mutterings amongst councillors about rescinding the controversial approach and he was “dismayed and horrified at that thought,” but no such motion came to pass this week.

He said he’d been accosted, had his land trespassed on, and used condoms and syringes were found scattered about his property.

Another local said the lowest point had come one Christmas day: She’d gone out to throw some wrapping in the bin—while wearing Tweety Bird pyjamas—to be propositioned by a man seeking paid sex.

Leederville-based council candidates Stuart Lofthouse and Debbie Saunders oppose the policy.

“I find it embarrassing that a council that purports to be so progressive resorts to this,” Ms Saunders says, describing the punishment as mediaeval.

She suggests if those seeking a prostitute are named, drink-drivers should be named too, but adds, “I guess the mayor wouldn’t want that to happen”.

“What a delightful individual,” mayor Alannah MacTiernan says. “It makes you really enjoy public office.”

by DAVID BELL

An infamous Inglewood brothel has closed its doors— just days before a trial was held in which its owner was fined $80,000 for operating the bordello.

Stirling city council rangers searched 835 Beaufort Street after complaints from local residents the house was being used as a brothel, not a legitimate massage parlour.

The premises is listed as Top 835, offering massages, on internet business listings.

Rangers discovered packets of condoms in drawers; there were also double beds, showers and spas in every room.

A court magistrate ruled the premises was being used as a brothel and found the owner guilty for unauthorised use, issuing a fine of $80,000 plus costs.

Council spokesperson Simone Holmes-Cavanagh says the council believe the owner has locked the gates and moved on.

Mayor David Boothman says the decision will make other illegal operators take note.

“The evidence was hard to dispute and this is an excellent outcome,” he says.

“The finding by the magistrate demonstrates to owners of similar establishments that the law is willing to come down hard on you if you are operating similar businesses.”

Cr Terry Tyzack says he’s glad the city is doggedly pursuing the owners of illegal brothels.

“I think this result shows people that we won’t give up, and will keep investigating transgressions until we get an outcome for our Stirling ratepayers.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

The Forrest Park saga is nearing an end, with Vincent councillors voting to erect a barrier between soccer players and dog walkers.

The Perth Soccer Club opposes the barrier but dog walkers want it there so they can let their pooches run around off the leash. There’ve been occasional blow ups and shouting matches at the park.

“This has been a very difficult issue and one where there has been a lot of conflict,” mayor Alannah MacTiernan said at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Given the level of conflict we need a compromise solution.”

Winter

Councillors decided to plant vegetation partway across and they’re looking at options for a fence to be installed ready for next winter that’ll likely cost north of $65,000.

“People living in the area favour the barriers,” Ms MacTiernan said.

As it was passed a soccer supporter in the stands of the public gallery shook his head, no doubt muttering about the ref.

Cr Dudley Maier wanted to install a permanent garden bed along the boundary to separate them as it would look better than the off-the-shelf pool fence that was being used, but he was outvoted.

by DAVID BELL

Locals seemed deeply unimpressed by concept images for a toilet at the Hobart Street Reserve.

In May the council approved the outhouse, with Crs Josh Topelberg and John Pintabona opposing it.

The contentious khazi was the subject of 191 submissions, with 60 in favour but most opposed, concerned it would encourage anti-social behaviour and be a lair for drug users.

The council stumped up about $17,000 for a temporary toilet for a trial run, enough to pick up a second-hand industrial dunny. If it works a more permanent privy can be installed. But the concept images that came back didn’t impress, with token green lattice around the edge failing to disguise the utilitarian lav.

Nearby local Marcus West says he felt “disappointment” when he saw the images.

“I had hoped any option proposed would be more sympathetic to the park, and not something more fitting a building site or a festival”.

He said he could imagine “children in hardhats walking through the park, and maybe I’ll get on my raver gear and go over there”.

Fellow resident Peter Doyle said “the options presented are all quite dire”.

Given the “overwhelming public response” council should can the can plan, he said.

Mr Doyle invited councillors who voted for it to try to enjoy a picnic in the park once the john’s installed.

After seeing the images mayor Alannah MacTiernan moved a motion, “that it be deferred until something a bit more presentable comes back”.

That vote was won, but Cr Topelberg warned it might not be possible to do much better with the budgeted amount set aside for the second-hand thunder box.

by DAVID BELL

A Colorbond fence could end up costing Morley’s Coventry Village shopping centre more than $20 million in fines and backpayments.

Bayswater city council launched legal action last year after Coventry failed to remove the temporary fence at the rear of the village and replace it with concrete.

Approved plans stipulated concrete, with the council agreeing to a temporary three-month trial of Colorbond only after the builders reported problems recycling cement earmarked for the project.

After the trial the council voted to not allow the Colorbend to remain.

The centre submitted an application seeking formal permission to keep it.

A few days before the item was to come before the council—with a recommendation to reject—the council launched legal action under the WA planning and development act.

A magistrate found in the council’s favour, exposing the centre to the possibility of a $1 million fine plus $25,000 daily penalties stretching back to 2012.

All up, that’s nearly $10 million the centre is potentially exposed to.

However, the magistrate won’t set a penalty until a separate state administrative tribunal appeal, filed by the village, is heard.

The unelected but powerful SAT presides over planning disputes.

Village shareholder Mike Holtham is disappointed the council decided to prosecute before even voting on the new application.

“The prosecutor for the city actually suggested that we shut the development down until we complied,” he said.

“So we were supposed to shut down 150 tenants and their businesses?

“We’ve had no complaints from residents about the fence and most of the other fences in the area are Colorbond, so it doesn’t detract from the amenity—it doesn’t make sense.

“This kind of red tape could dissuade other developers from planning projects in the city.”

Morley Liberal MP Ian Britza says he wants common sense to apply and for the village to be treated fairly.

A SAT mediation is scheduled for August 28. Coventry Village is appealing the magistrate’s original ruling.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

Like many of us growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, William Heerey was saturated by American TV and movies.

Your morning cartoons were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you pretended to be Robocop at school, playing with toy guns, and then headed home to watch Back to the Future on VHS.

When the Perth-based street artist closed his Last Chance studio and moved to Brooklyn 18 months ago, his memories collided with the real experience that is modern America.

“The idea of America was a fantasy,” he says. “I’d only seen it in these TV shows. Nothing really compares.”

He expected to find rap music on every street corner but showed up in New York to find venues playing rock music and grunge.

The people, too, brought on a bit of culture shock.

“You get used to being harassed, that’s why everyone walks faster there,” he laughs.

“Everyone in New York is on a hustle to better themselves. It was hard to make friends there because everyone’s on their own grind.

“The tall poppy syndrome is just not there. If someone sees you doing well, they want to get on your back to better themselves.”

Now he’s back in town for a new exhibition, Welcome to the World of… by Daek William (his artist ego).

The works draws on childhood memories with images of ships from Star Wars flying past the Ghostbusters HQ, or a sub-machine gun slathered in fast food stickers.

Heerey also wanted the work to be interactive, with scratch-and-sniff and hypercolour elements worked into the pieces to encourage people to get more involved than just having an idle gander from two metres away.

He’s used to having his work interacted with, but in a different way. Usually when Heerey throws up a mural he knows the work will disappear before long, with someone else coming along to paint over it.

“It’s the experience of actually doing the painting, rather than the final outcome,” that’s important, he says.

“And you get used to it.”

Welcome to the World of… by Daek William is at Linton & Kay Galleries, 1/137 St Georges Terrace, July 2 to 16. 

by DAVID BELL

Sites suggested by Bayswater city council as a home for a men’s shed have been described as “unsatisfactory” by coordinator Jim Chantry.

A council report earmarks Maylands Autumn Centre, the pre-primary schools of Morley, West Morley and Embleton and the migrant centre on Guildford Road.

Mr Chantry, who is helping the council establish the shed and is the former secretary of Men’s Shed Association WA, says the sites are impractical, “due to the proximity of residential housing and lack of parking available”.

“Planers and sanders can generate a lot of noise and become annoying for people close by,” he says. “Secondly, a garage in the rear of an existing building has insufficient room for a workshop/storage area for more than a couple of blokes at a time.”

Mr Chantry says a shed should be located where men can readily access it and where it can become part of their community: “A men’s shed provides a place for men to meet in a relaxed atmosphere, be creative and learn new skills.”

Council voted to review the site list with stakeholders and investigate funding with Lotterywest and the Australian Men’s Sheds Association.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A popular festival that drew 8000 people to the Perth Cultural Centre in February is shifting to Fremantle.

The planned move of the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival caught the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, which runs the cultural centre, on the hop.

MRA CEO Kieran Kinsella says his organisation has been involved in negotiations over next year’s event and, “the MRA was not aware that Sunset Events were exploring options to hold the event elsewhere”.

“The success of the festival has been shown in attendance which has more than doubled from 3500 [five years ago] to 8000 people in 2013.”

Sunset Events is based in Fremantle and it has asked the port city council for permission to stage the festival in its historic West End on February 8.

Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi was at a loss to explain the thinking behind the move.

“I’m sorry I don’t know why,” she said. “You will have to speak to our guys as I’m not sure if its outgrown the venue or it may be it clashes with the Fringe Festival.

Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt is pleased as punch.

“I am excited about the possibility of this event coming to Fremantle as it ticks a lot of boxes in my mind including reinforcing Fremantle as a festival city, with fun and funky events.

“I also really like that the festival will mean that the often under-activated streets and laneways of the West End will be full of young people on the weekend.

“It will be a special and unique backdrop for a festival and could see it becoming an iconic Fremantle event.”

Sunset Events didn’t get back.

by BRENDAN FOSTER

Woolworths is appealing the rejection of its $3.5 million plans to redevelop the Peninsula Tavern in Maylands.

The Bayswater development assessment panel this year knocked back the makeover on planning grounds, including non-compliant building setbacks. Woolies will now appeal that ruling to the unelected but powerful state administrative tribunal. The application for the Railway Parade pub and bottleshop includes a 743sqm Dan Murphy’s outlet, courtyards and family-style bistro, 123 car bays and two-storey offices above the liquor store.

The bottleshop element of the application proved unpopular with Bayswater city council and the Maylands Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, which say access to cheap grog contributes to anti-social problems.

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker is planning to forward a written submission to SAT opposing the bottleshop element: “I am keen to support my community in their opposition to a ‘destination liquor outlet’ for the site,” she told the Voice.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

Fed up with spending all night waiting to get into a club, three lads have made their own app to gauge wait times.

Nick Ainsworth, Anthony Maher and Dan Preston developed the free NightGuy app so punters could submit the length of lines at clubs. It uses crowdsourcing to build an accurate picture.

Other users can then rate those submissions for accuracy, and the most recent ones get the best weighting. Mr Aisnworth, who’s in his final year of law and economics at UWA, says waiting in line “was quite a frustrating problem in the city”.

“Anthony and I both lived in Europe…when we came back we were surprised by the things patrons had to go through to have a night out in Perth.”

He found wait times of up to an hour at some clubs, and on the worst nights wouldn’t get in at all. There’s also info about cover charges and dress codes, so you don’t walk all the way to Malt supper club and then be told to put on a house shirt before they let you in (yes, this actually happened). If you switch on the GPS it’ll also list the clubs closest to you.

Mr Ainsworth says they knew they needed about 200 users before the app reached critical mass, but just a couple of weekends after launch they’ve already reached about 500.

“It was definitely more than we expected.”

It’s been about nine months since they had the idea, which was programmed by some friends back in Europe. The Android version proved a bit easier than the iPhone programming, and then there’s the usual difficulties getting something listed on Apple’s app store.

“Google’s super easy to deal with.

“Apple being Apple, it’s a little bit difficult dealing with them,” Mr Ainsworth chuckles, “They can definitely take their time and it’s a bit unsettling sometimes when you’re trying to get an update approved and it can be anywhere from two to six days.”

The app’s free “and it always will be,” Mr Ainsworth says, but if it takes off the men will consider inserting advertising banners.

As for the trio of inventors, he says “we’ll see if we can find another problem to solve”.

by DAVID BELL