Perth Voice Interactive

BAYSWATER council has backed down from a fight to keep tough new cat-control rules, fearing it will be held in contempt of WA Parliament. 

Last year Bayswater tried to bring in a new local cat law including a clause stating “a cat shall not be in a public place unless the cat is, in the opinion of an Authorised Person, under effective control”.

The Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation, which reviews council rules on behalf of Parliament to ensure they’re compliant with state law, reckoned the council had no power to make that rule under the WA Cat Act 2011.

It’s a problem other councils including Fremantle and Vincent have run into while trying to control cats, while other councils like Northam have got near identical moggie-control laws passed without a fuss from the JSCDL.

Contempt

At the JSCDL’s request, in December 2022 Bayswater council agreed they’d rewrite their law to remove the offending kitty-control “Clause 2.2” within six months.

That’s come and gone, and now their extension is up, and if they didn’t stick to their agreement to strike that rule they’d risk being held in contempt of parliament.

Ahead of the August 22 council meeting there were many voices urging the council to fight the JSCDL and keep the law in place. 

Earlier this year they’d also been urged to keep the clause by state MP Dave Kelly, whose Bassendean electorate covers a lot of cat-affected riverfront. They’d also been furnished with independent legal advice that Northam’s laws were allowable under the Cat Act and so Bayswater’s should be too. 

Only three councillors – Giorgia Johnson, Sally Palmer and Elli Petersen-Pik – voted to keep clause 2.2 in, but a majority weren’t keen on defying the JSCDL after making their December undertaking to remove the clause. 

Cr Giorgia Johnson said “we’ve heard loud and clear from our community… we’ve heard from experts, we’ve heard from all sorts of people and had all sorts of advice, and I think we should proceed with the local law that we intended”.

Cr Dan Bull said while he supported the cat control clause, “taking this step now is potentially going to put us in contempt of Parliament which is something that I just don’t think we should be doing as a council”.

Wildlife

The majority voted to adhere to the undertaking and remove the rule. Cr Catherine Ehrhardt got up an additional motion to immediately consider additional ways the council could protect wildlife, and they resolved to lobby local government minister David Michael to urgently review the Cat Act 2011 to allow rules like clause 2.2.

Wildlife welfare campaigner David Dyke, who has stood in front of many councils urging them to bring in laws to keep cats at home, told us he was disappointed the law wasn’t kept but was heartened they’d be lobbying the state government to get a hurry on and bring in stronger cat laws.

by DAVID BELL

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ESTEEMED botanist KINGSLEY DIXON, former owner of Halliday House which borders the Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary, wrote a deputation stating: “We are avid cat lovers having owned our generations of our beloved Burmese cats who enjoyed their lives in Halliday House. 

“We were devastated when mutilated native birds [were] first brought in to us and decided then and there to contain our cats. This was easy and we encouraged our neighbours to also help protect our native wildlife particularly as we were adjacent to the bird sanctuary.

“I applaud the council for their initial courage in creating a local law requiring cats to be under control at all times. I urge all councillors to reconsider the decision to remove this clause and to stand up as visionary leaders for Western Australian conservation. Persisting with Clause 2.2 is an important and timely step to create a nature-positive City of Bayswater.”

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Cat Risk

ENVIRONMENTAL and conservation science researcher MICHAEL CALVER and ecosystem science researcher TRISH FLEMING wrote a joint statement saying the laws would protect cats as well as wildlife: “Unlike dogs, [cats] are often allowed to roam freely, exposing them to significant risks that may shorten their lives. 

In our opinion, too little action has been taken regarding the risks pet cats face when roaming, so we endorse the City of Bayswater’s proposed local cat laws, including Clause 2.2 regarding containment of pet cats.”

Profs Calver and Fleming wrote: “Suburbs and cities are hazardous places for cats. Free-ranging cats may be hit by cars, injured fighting other cats or by being attacked by other animals, accidentally or deliberately poisoned, infected with life-threatening diseases or infected by parasites that reduce their quality of life. Sadly, some also suffer persecution from cruel people.”

AMID campaigners urging cat containment to protect both wildlife and cats, the RSCPA WA announced this week they were seeking information on the deliberate drowning of a four-year-old tabby cat named Tiger Tim. 

He was found on August 24 with a brick around his neck in the Swan River along Bayswater’s foreshore.

“He went missing from Tenth Ave in Inglewood. That’s over five kilometres from where he was found,” RSCPA WA inspector Hayley Wirth said in a media release calling for witnesses.

“Someone has deliberately driven Tiger Tim to this location, tied a brick to his neck and thrown him in the river. That is a serious criminal offence, and I am asking for the public’s help to find out who committed it.”

The killing attracted a lot of online commentary about responsible cat ownership, leading to the RSCPA to issue a followup statement on its public announcement: “While we advocate for cats to be contained to their owner’s property, that is not the point of this post and we will not tolerate comments blaming Tiger Tim’s owners for his death. Tiger Tim’s death is the fault of the perpetrator who committed a callous and unlawful act of animal cruelty. That is our focus in this matter.”

FOLLOWING widespread discontent Vincent council has steered away from a plan to partly block off a Beaufort Street side-road. 

It may be a sign the council’s learned the lesson of not diverting traffic from one street onto others, following the vexed Alma Road/Leake Street traffic diversion saga that caused local uproar earlier this year by cutting a North Perth neighbourhood in half.

The Beaufort/Harold Street intersection averages about one crash a year, with two hospitalisations in the past 10 years, enough to qualify it as a “Black Spot” under Australian government standards.  

Main Roads has offered up cash to fund a project to reduce crashes by banning right turns out of Harold Street. 

The change is predicted to prevent 0.6 of those crashes per year, on average, and council staff had recommended going ahead with it.

Main Roads funding is often too tempting an offer for councils to refuse, but Vincent councillors voted not to take the cash after so many locals said this would be a bad move for the Beaufort strip. 

Many objectors said it simply “moves the problem”.

Mayor Emma Cole said: “I think that what we’re seeing is when we put in place traffic interventions that alter traffic flow and see a diversion of traffic to other street, I think our community is really starting to speak up quite strongly on these issues and feeling a little bit frustrated about the types of strategies that we’re looking to adopt.”

Ms Cole was one of three councillors who had voted against the Alma/Leake diversion, concerned about simply moving traffic from one street onto others. But a majority voted for a six-month trial only to later end it early after three months due to public opposition. 

Feedback

Ms Cole said, “there’s been significant feedback from the community that they’re not in favour of this treatment… I’d much prefer we address the issue of Beaufort Street more comprehensively” rather than tackling one turn-off road at a time.”

Instead the council backed an alternative idea from Cr Susan Gontaszewski to look at an overall plan to slow down speeds on Beaufort Street and find ways to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety – and to bring in Beaufort locals from the start to get their input. 

Beaufort is one of the few town centres that doesn’t have a consistent 40kmh speed limit. 

She also proposed they investigate turning Harold Street one-way to lessen its interference with Beaufort Street, a measure supported by many of the street’s residents.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH councillors have voted to sell a public laneway to a company owned by mining and media magnate Kerry Stokes, amid concerns from locals it might be closed off if sold.

Comserv, a subsidiary of Mr Stokes’ company Australian Capital Equity, made an unsolicited bid earlier this year to buy 177sqm of West Perth’s Altona Laneway.

That strip of the laneway is flanked by two Comserv-owned properties but it’s also used by nearby residents and service vehicles. 

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas was not present during the discussion or the vote, as he disclosed an interest given he’s employed by SevenWest Media, where ACE is a major shareholder.

At their August 29 meeting councillors Liam Gobbert, Clyde Bevan, Rebecca Gordon, and Catherine Lezer voted in favour of the sale, with a price of $675,000.

Councillors Viktor Ko and Sandy Anghie voted against the sale.

Cr Anghie, who’s running against Mr Zempilas for lord mayor in October, said “we have carried out public consultation and the responses that we had were overwhelmingly in the negative… in my view the concerns raised by residents and ratepayers have not been adequately addressed”.

Many locals are concerned about losing access. The council admin’s report says access will be retained for now, pending an upcoming “West Perth Laneways Study” due to start in 2024. 

“The city has never sold a laneway before,” Cr Anghie said. “It does seem a bit back-to-front to be selling the laneway before completing the West Perth laneway review and strategy.”

Cr Anghie noted it was a departure from standard operating procedure, where “we’ve been told that strategy must come first, particularly in relation to the city’s property portfolio”.

The week before nearby apartment resident Heidi Shaddick had said she had “concerns about the lack of transparency in the process and the lack of strategy in respect to the sale… 

“From an outsider’s perspective it appears that the deal is underhand as there has been a lack of information on the details of the proposed purchase.

“While we appreciate the commercial-in-confidence nature of the proposed deal there has been no information provided about which 177sqm of the laneway is being proposed for purchase, or what the purchaser intends to do with the laneway.”

While there’s been no publicly-announced plans for the laneway, some councillors gave hints that a housing development was in store once the two Comserv-owned properties were linked.

Cr Gordon said the sale was “a really exciting opportunity for West Perth, if not the city as a whole, to bring vibrancy by way of greater residential population to West Perth… the outcomes of a possible development there are much more significant than the actual dollar value we will get for the purchase price.”

by DAVID BELL

LOCAL enviro-minded group Sustainable Bayswater is inviting like-minded folks to their launch at Enviro House for a night of short films and snacks.

The group used to be called Transition Town Bayswater and they’re holding a second launch as a ‘getting-to-know-you’ event with the new, more obvious moniker.

“We’re still part of the global Transition Town network which is about local communities transitioning away from fossil fuels and living more sustainably,” volunteer Kevin Mack says.

“Our new name is easier to understand and better reflects the wide-ranging, practical work our group does such as nature walks, community olive harvests, film events, advocacy and workshops.”

He says anyone interested in making their community more environmentally sustainable should come along, “whether you’re interested in planting trees, reducing waste, boosting active transport, championing renewables or any other aspect of sustainability”.

It’s at Enviro House, 125 King William Street on Saturday September 2, 4–6pm. 

At 2pm there’s a share and repair event where you can bring down busted items that could be fixed rather than thrown out. It’s free but sling them an RSVP at events.humanitix.com/sustainable-bayswater-launch-party so they can plan for vittles.