Perth Voice Interactive

FORCING developers to pay for extras like public art could be holding back new housing, Stirling mayor Mark Irwin says, and he wants council to consider giving them a one-year free ride on having to pay. 

Like many councils Stirling requires developers to set aside money for art, either paying for an artist to produce an on-site artwork or giving the city a cash contribution to a public art fund. They have to pay a minimum of 1 per cent of the overall cost of any development valued at more than $5 million, or $500,000 plus 0.5 per cent for every dollar over $50 million.

There are a couple of other contribution schemes that occasionally kick in, like payments to improve a right-of-way adjacent to a new project, or cash to cover new verge trees.

At the August 1 meeting Mr Irwin requested staff “investigate the potential to review the planning policy requirements that trigger a financial contribution as part of development approval” and wants council to consider voting for “a 12-month moratorium on these contributions”.

Mr Irwin has now submitted written reasons for the proposal stating: “The current market conditions have resulted in a number of developments being placed on hold or cancelled as they are no longer feasible to construct. 

“This is making the delivery of housing and other development in the City increasingly difficult. 

“In order to assist the industry, it is considered appropriate that any additional costs that a development is required to pay are reviewed and placed on hold temporarily.”

Stirling’s policy governing developer art contributions says the aim of art is “making an area liveable with a local distinctiveness and a sense of place” and “contributing to the overall appearance and amenity of an area subject to development”.

But it hasn’t always worked out. When the council was consulting on its 2021-2025 public art masterplan, one complaint that popped up among respondents was “poor artistic results from public artworks commissioned by developers on private land”.

by DAVID BELL

A DOORKNOCKING program to check in with people’s mental health and hook them up with help is rolling out in Stirling.

Dubbed the ACDC project (Assisting Communities through Direct Connection), the door-to-door outreach is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and is trying to reach areas and people who might not know what free or low-cost help is available, or who are kept away by wait times, costs, or lack of transport.

Immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language are less likely to seek help when they need it.

James McKechnie from Community Mental Health Australia says, “there are community-based support services funded to offer support to those who need it, but we have found that a lot of people are not aware of the support that is available.”

So far the doorknockers have gone door-to-door in Beechboro and Ballajura last year and started with the Stirling suburbs of Mirrabooka, Nollamara, and Westminster in July.

While the direct method may sound confronting they’ve had a decent response: National data from the first trial showed 34 per cent of people answered the door, and 52 per cent of those were happy to have a conversation.

They’re also collecting stats on service gaps and where more funding’s needed.

Danyelle Greyling is from Sudbury Community House, the group doing the doorknocking in Stirling. 

She says so far they’ve seen “that there is a significant portion of the CALD [Culturally and Linguistically Diverse] community who do not access support because the language barriers reduce their confidence and capacity to explore options.

“The elderly are still expressing serious concerns about COVID and a reluctance to leave their house.”

The most common concerns people mentioned affecting mental health related to isolation, financial stress from the rising cost of living, and poor physical health. A surprisingly large number of people surveyed in the first trial said the weight of climate change worry was a psychological stressor, with 23 per cent describing it as a “large” problem or challenge in their lives. 

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT council is having another tilt at introducing stricter cat control laws after its previous by-law was given the thumbs down by a WA Parliament committee.

Vincent had sought to have breeding cats confined to cages and licenced cats leashed when in public places, similar to laws being sought by many other councils across WA.

But local government rules can’t contradict state government laws, and parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Delegation Legislation has rejected various attempts to control cats as “inconsistent” with the WA Cat Act. 

In December 2022 Vincent councillors proposed changes to its local laws requiring people with three or more cats to licence them; they would also have to be “contained on the [owner’s] premises unless under the effective control of a person”, meaning on a leash or in a cat carrier or cage.

The law was supposed to come into effect in February, but on March 23 Parliament’s delegated legislation committee sent Vincent a letter saying it had overstepped its reach: The Cat Act allows local governments to ban cats from certain places, but it can’t put conditions on them being in public, so requiring leashes is a no-go.

After getting the letter Vincent councillors voted in April to “ensure the local law will not be enforced” and come up with a new, compliant version.

The new version was put out for public comment this week, deleting the rule about leashing licenced cats.

Another clause of the by-law that drew the JSCDL’s frown was a rule that allowed licence holders to keep up to six breeding cats subject to “each cat being permanently confined in an effective cage system”.

That was deemed to risk contradicting the Animal Welfare Act which states “a person must not be cruel to an animal”. 

A council report summarising the JSCDL’s concerns states: “The permanent confinement of a cat may cause, or is likely to cause, unnecessary harm to an animal.”

The new amended policy clarifies “adequate space for the exercise of each cat kept on the premises” and “the premises must be maintained in good order and in a clean and sanitary condition”.

The amended law is open for submissions until September 10 and should go back to council that month.

After the JSCDL’s disapproving letter arrived, former councillor Dudley Maier pointed out at April’s meeting that Vincent council has had three local laws knocked back by the joint standing committee since 2019.

That’s “three out of three since 2019,” he said.

“I do not recall a previous local law knocked back. I may be wrong, but I can’t remember anything similar. I think it’s sloppy.”

Vincent’s not alone in having trouble getting cat control laws passed: In 2022 Fremantle council’s attempt to leash cats in public was rejected by the legislation committee as going beyond what the Cat Act allows, and Bayswater is currently struggling to bring in similar laws after an initial disapproval. 

by DAVID BELL

IN the wake of Vincent mayor Emma Cole announcing she would not recontest her seat at October’s election, two sitting councillors have put up their hand for the top job this week.

Cr Suzanne Worner and Cr Ron Alexander were both elected in 2021 but represent pretty different visions for Vincent’s future direction.

RON ALEXANDER is not content with the status quo at Vincent council. 

A former director general of the Department of Sport and Recreation and inaugural senior coach of the West Coast Eagles, he was made a member of the Order of Australia for the Queen’s birthday in 2019 for “significant service to sport and recreation, and to public administration”.

He voted against the June budget, concerned the council was once again taking in more ratepayer’s money than they needed, and continuing a tradition of overestimating how much of their capital works schedule they could get done given labour and material shortages. 

Asked if he was ready to make the jump up to mayor after only two years on council, Cr Alexander lightly chuckled, and said, “I think I’ve got a fair record of being in leadership positions – at the sport and recreation department with 18 sites around WA, being involved in building things like the [Optus] Stadium, running programs for local government like the Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund… so I’ve had lots of experience leading organisations and ensuring there’s integrity and value for money, and [keeping] people happy in the workplace.”

Last week former Vincent mayor John Carey said whoever steps up to the role of mayor should treat it like a full-time job.

Cr Alexander, who currently has a pretty busy schedule as patron of the Edmund Rice Centre WA and sitting on boards, says he’s prepared to scale back his volunteer work to put in the hours as mayor.

He’s not a member of any political party, and could be the first non-Labor mayor in Vincent’s history.

—————

SUZANNE WORNER feels it’s mostly smooth sailing at Vincent and she’d represent more of a continuity of mayor Emma Cole’s direction.

Cr Worner has worked in TV and radio production, events management, and is general manager of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival.

She is keen to step up for the mayoral role as she says in her two years council so far she’s enjoyed being “invited into people’s lives. 

“I love to be engaged with people and meeting with people… I’ve spent more time at sporting events than I have in the rest of my life, in the last two years.”

A health scare followed by surgery to fix leaking cerebrospinal fluid in 2022 has also prompted Cr Worner to seize the day and jump at the opportunity of a vacant mayoral seat (and she adds, “I have the neurosurgeon’s tick of approval” that she’s in good shape to run). 

She hasn’t always been lock-step with the current council – both Cr Worner and Cr Alexander voted against the plan to remove the first hour free in public carparks, one of the most contentious issues among local business owners in the past year. 

But she says overall the council’s running well and she’d want to follow in Ms Cole’s footsteps, and she’d likewise make it a full time job to spend plenty of time on community engagement.

Cr Worner’s term as councillor ends in October, and she’ll also be running for her current seat as a backup to her mayoral tilt. 

Cr Worner is also not a member of a political party, so could also be the first non-Labor mayor in Vincent’s history.

by DAVID BELL

STIRLING councillor Bianca Sandri has a new gig as director of Bayswater council’s planning department starting in October.

We haven’t yet heard back from Cr Sandri as to whether she’ll resign early from her elected role at Stirling to make way for an extra candidate for her Inglewood ward at October’s 2023 elections. 

But her term would otherwise run til October 2025, and sticking around would mean for tricky navigation of both roles, given both councils meet on the same night.

On the Stirling side, Cr Sandri has already had to declare a conflict of interest over a Bayswater-related item due to her upcoming planning director role: At the August 1 meeting she sat out of the debate about whether to trial a community renewable energy battery, as Bayswater is another council looking into a joint-deal with the battery company.

Cr Sandri was elected in 2017, served as Stirling’s deputy mayor from 2019 to 2021, and was re-elected for the 2021-2025 term.

In her day job Cr Sandri is director of Urbanista Town Planning, and she’s announced on her LinkedIn page “it’s now time for me to step back and move into my new local government role”.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER 54 years a group of friends from Bayswater Primary School are searching for their fellow classmates who finished year 7 together in 1969.

Drawn together by memories of moon landings and milk bottles, they’re now organising a September reunion for the cohort running from Year 1 in 1963 to graduating from BPS in 1969, which had two classes of about 30 students each.

Former student Barry Dux says in the leadup to the reunion he’s had some phone chats with old friends, and it’s both the very big things and the very little things that pop up in their reminiscing.

“The biggest one we all speak about: 1969 was the year man landed on the moon,” he says.

“In those days even black and white TVs were a rarity, and we all remember being huddled around in one room to watch man land on the moon.”

Alongside the epic histories are the little things that stick in the memory: “And we spoke about the little milk bottles you used to get.” 

To hear their voices after all this time, he says it’s “weird! Really weird! They almost sounded the same.”

The reunion has been a long time in the making, Mr Dux says, and came about when he caught up with former classmate and reunion co-organiser Lynn Deering a few years back.

“We did fall out of touch for a long time,” Mr Dux says, until recent years when he recognised her name attached to a Facebook post about the Bayswater Historical Society, where she’s president.

“I saw Lynn’s name and thought: I know that name! 

“We stayed in touch and we finally got together, and it’s actually happening now… none of us are getting any younger.”

They’ve put the feelers out to a few others and started planning, and last Friday a group of five met up at the society’s HQ at Halliday House to catch up and look through the archives.

There’s not much in the annals from that era so they’re hoping former students can bring along any photos or memorabilia to the meetup.

It’s on September 23 at Halliday House from 1‚Äì3.30pm, and RSVP for numbers on eventbrite (plug in ‘Bayswater primary school reunion’) or call Mr Dux on 0412 912 564.

by DAVID BELL

THE vexed verge junk issue has cropped up again with some councils considering reverting to the old yearly bulk collection. 

Back in 2014 Stirling council cancelled its yearly “bring out your dead” junk collection because the piles of trash were making the streets unsightly, especially when weather or scavengers strew the rubbish about; non-residents driving through and adding their garbage at the first sign of an object on the verge also added to the mess.

Sometimes unexpected surges in junk meant the pickup process took longer, while recyclables weren’t extracted so everything went to landfill.

As a result the annual verge collection was replaced with an on-call skip bin service.

But some, particularly treasure hunters, yearn for the days of bulk verge collections. Subiaco council recently reverted to the annual bulk pickup, and there’s now been an attempt to bring it back for a trial in a stretch of Stirling.

Stirling councillor Michael Dudek says some members of the community have complained the book-a-bin system is limited by a short timeframe, a lack of availability to book a bin, and the bins being too small for a household’s yearly bulk rubbish or large objects. 

Cr Dudek moved a notice of motion at the August 1 meeting calling for a “one-off bulk verge collection trial within the suburbs of Balga, Mirrabooka, Nollamara and Westminster”, just to see how it goes for a year so the council can decide whether to renew the on-demand skip bins when the deal expires in 2024.

His motion got 7 votes to 6, a narrow defeat since he needed an absolute majority, so the skip bin system stays for at least another year.

Subiaco council’s switch back to bulk collection also wasn’t painless: Its councilors spent an hour and a half debating the move, eventually voting to go back to bi-annual bulk pickups as soon as they could find a contractor.

Subi’s currently finishing up an 18-month trial with the ‘Verge Valet’ service, where residents can just dump their junk straight on the bare verge and book a pickup. But about 66 per cent of surveyed residents wanted to go back to the old mass pickups.

A chief complaint about the Verge Valet service was that a lot of rubbish was left on the verge for lengthy periods with no indication of whether a valet was coming to pick it up, or if it was just someone flytipping. 

Subi councillor Rosemarie De Vries, who led the charge to bring back the bulk tradition, said “one person’s waste is another person’s treasure, and we should allow treasures to continue to be recycled and shared within the community through the bulk waste collection”.

by DAVID BELL