WA PREMIER THREATENS COUNCILS ON INFILL

The West Australian newspaper reports that W.A. Premier Colin Barnett threatens to override local council decisions on density infill if councils don’t increase the targets and do what is expected of them by the State Government.

The Premier has instructed new Planning Minister Donna Faragher to meet with all councils and make them aware that no to infill will not be tolerated.

Barnett expressed he would like to see more terrace-style housing and also so-called micro-blocks.

I think it is very important for the Fremantle community to take note of this, as many accuse Fremantle Council of being on a wild development chase, when in fact the pressure has been coming from the Barnett government for years.

The last thing we in Fremantle should want is the State to decide where residential infill should happen, or leave it to Development Assessment Panels who will just about do what developers want.

Fremantle needs good, sensible, restraint development of outstanding architecture. Terrace housing would fit in a whole lot better than ugly high and medium density  concrete boxes, so let’s work toward achieving that.

Roel Loopers

FREO WELCOMES NEW CITIZENS

Fremantle welcomed many new citizens on Australia Day at the ceremony on the Esplanade and also recognised the achievements of local people and groups in the Premier’s Active Citizenship Awards.

It probably was no surprise that the very active and successful Rethink The Link received the group award but some people were surprised that Adin Lang got the individual one as he stood for Cockburn Council at the May election. There were a couple of people who thought I did not deserve the award when I received it in 2013, and with so many active and deserving people in our community I am sure it is hard for the committee to please everyone.

It was relatively quiet in Fremantle yesterday compared to previous years and I believe it is time to rethink the way Freo celebrates our national day.

Roel Loopers

FEDERAL LABOR WANTS PERTH FREIGHT LINK INQUIRY

Federal shadow minister for infrastructure Anthony Albanese has demanded that the Federal Auditor-General investigates Canberra’s involvement with the WA PERTH FREIGHT LINK.  Albanese claims there has been “systemic failure” in the government’s infrastructure program that was announced in 2014.

Federal Government pledged to support the $ 1.6 billion PFL project with $ 925 million, but Supreme Court Chief Justice Wayne Martin ruled in December that the approval by the state’s EPA-Environmental Protection Agency and the Minister for the Environment for the Roe 8 highway was invalid. Premier Colin Barnett has since been quoted that the state will go through the environmental approval process again but that it does not have to accept the outcome of the process. This means the state government could go ahead with Roe 8 even if a new EPA report recommends against approving it.

Anthony Albanese wrote in his letter to the Federal Auditor-General that it is a concern Canberra is involved in the Perth Freight Link, the now collapsed EastWest Link project in Melbourne and the $ 6.8 million cost overrun of the WestConnex motorway in Sydney.

Roel Loopers

PERTH FREIGHT LINK NEW YEAR SOLUTIONS?

 

Fremantle Mayor Dr Brad Pettitt is on the job 24/7, even when on holiday in Esperance with his beautiful partner Emma, as today’s opinion piece in the West Australian newspaper shows.

Brad argues that the twin crisis of the WA State’s $ 3,1 billion budget deficit and the Supreme Court ruling about the invalidity of the Roe 8 highway gives the Barnett government the opportunity to reconsider its priorities and that the Property Council, Regional Development Australia, the Kwinana Industries Council and local councils Fremantle, East Fremantle, Kwinana, Cockburn and Armadale all want the Outer Harbour at Kwinana built as a priority.

Brad Pettitt writes the outer harbour has wide environmental and community support and that there would be direct and indirect employment for 75,000 people working on the project, which the government estimates would take up to 20 years to complete.

A very valid point the Freo Mayor makes is the excessive cost of the planned Perth Freight Link at an estimated cost for the tunnelled section of $ 4 million per 10 metres of road constructed. The entire 5.5 kilometre long PFL is estimated to cost between 400-500 million.

I think all points the Mayor raises are valid but we do know that the start of the outer harbour would not mean the end of Fremantle Port activity as the Kwinana port would only be an overflow port, so how would we deal with increased truck traffic to the inner city port without better road connectivity to it?

While everyone would like to see an increase on freight by rail the possible capacity for it is estimated to be only 30 per cent, which means more than 70 per cent of freight to Freo port would come by road.

The second point I want to make is the severe environmental impact on Cockburn Sound if an outer harbour is built and I doubt the environmental groups who oppose the Perth Freight Link would just sit back and let the Sound being negatively affected without protest.

It appears there are no solutions that will not have negative impacts on the environment and on affected communities and while Professor Peter Newman’s suggestion of putting it all on conveyor belts and underground might sound so simple one would have to ask what additional cost there would be for double handling of containers and if we would be prepared to pay more for imported goods to help protect the environment and our lifestyle.

There is no doubt the outer harbour will be needed in the not too distant future and that the Perth Freight Link planning has been an utter mess of incompetence, but there is the need to stop traffic chaos in North Fremantle and elsewhere in the immediate future.

While the concept of the PFL might be a federal government idea it will be counter productive to make it simply a political football where Labor, the Greens and environmental groups bash the Liberal Federal and State governments. It would be much better if they all connected in a think tank and try to find practical solutions instead of political grandstanding.

Roel Loopers

BARNETT CLAIMS SILENT MAJORITY WANT ROE 8

There is no doubt for me that one of the greatest inventions of spin ever made is the ‘Silent Majority’ claim. Politicians use it more and more to argue they do have strong community support from those who don’t speak out for controversial decisions and policies, and WA Premier Colin Barnett decided to finish the year with it.

In the West Australian newspaper today Barnett says that he believes there is strong majority support for building the Roe 8 highway extension and that the protests and the Supreme Court win against it won’t harm his party’s chances of winning the next state election. If the Premier is so sure about it why not wait then with signing off on Roe 8 and the Perth Freight Link till after the election, so voters can show him if they support the controversial highway to Fremantle Port. That way the ‘silent majority’ will have a say and are no longer the hidden voiceless, faceless people in the burbs who always support government decisions.

The other great spin invention to hide behind and to stop scrutiny and transparency is the claim that there is ‘Commercial Confidentiality’ that can’t be made public when the community asks questions, e.g. the new Perth Stadium and here in Freo the Kings Square project financial plans.

One of Premier Barnett’s biggest disappointments was the failure of Local Government reform and should he win the next election he will not doubt try to gain more power over local government and that is a big worry as DAPs and SAT already rubber-stamp unacceptable development against the wishes of local governments and communities.

The silent and vocal majorities want the building of the outer harbour to be prioritised, no matter what happens to the Perth Freight Link, so why not get on with that and show the voters concrete plans and a timeline before the next election, Premier?

Roel Loopers

 

 

FREMANTLE SOCIETY LIKE LEMMINGS OFF THE CLIFF

At last night’s AGM the Fremantle Society members decided to go back to the past by electing former Fremantle Councillor and former FS president John Dowson as their new leader. Dowson received about 80% of the votes while the other candidate Chris Lewis received just a fifth of the votes.

It was packed house with over one hundred members attending the meeting, so at least a presidential vote pulled them our of their lethargy.

I believe that the vote for Dowson is one for going back to negativity and anti just about everything and the attitude that Fremantle Council is the enemy. As one disappointed member said “It is like lemmings off the cliff.”

While we might have expected spin from former PR guru Chris Lewis it was John Dowson who did the spin and name dropping when he addressed the members and claimed to have single-handedly rescued the Warders Cottages because he had written a report for “Colin” Forget all the efforts Freo Council put in, all the presentations they made and forget also the submissions about it by the Fremantle Society and other members of the public, including I here several times on this blog.

So Dowson plays tennis with “Colin” but what good has that done for Fremantle? Did “Colin” support Freo Council when Dowson was an Elected Member, I think not.

Dowson will do what Dowson does best and that is make FS a narrow-focus organisation that will get a kick out of negativity and will oppose any major development in Fremantle. Like a political party that opposes anything the opposition proposes, the Fremantle Society will treat Fremantle Council as the enemy and the Brad bashers and Council kickers now have another organisation that will basically be about negativity, unwillingness to compromise and unwilling to collaborate with Council. That in my opinion is not the way forward and it is bad for Fremantle.

The negativity, the smear campaign and the conspiracy crap used by the Dowson supporters paid off, so it is still true in Australia that more people vote for those who run a negative campaign.

While FS members might live the dream that under JD the Society will save Fremantle from modernisation I should remind them that at the October election the voters did not ditch six sitting members to show their unhappiness with Council, and I remind them also that major development is not approved by Council but by State agencies DAP and SAT.

I sincerely hope that my fears are wrong and that the Fremantle Society under JD will try to remain progressive, pro change, willing to collaborate with Council and be a positive force in our city, but I fear the worse. Time will tell, and no doubt so will all the nasty comments that will be posted and attack me.

Roel Loopers

MASSIVE RECORD FOR FREMANTLE PORTS

The Fremantle Ports annual report for the financial year 2014/15 shows a huge $ 48 million after-tax profit, which is a 27 per cent increase to the previous year’s profit of a $ 37.9 million. It is a profit well above the expected target of $ 27,2 million.

There was an increase in overall trade of 6.7 per cent.

With massive profits like that one has to wonder why the W.A. State Government wants to sell off the port, but it also makes it very clear that something will need to be done about the increasing freight to the port. The Perth Freight Link is not a good option according to experts and even Premier Colin Barnett is not at all sure how it can be achieved, so we need more creative, better and long-term solutions.

Roel Loopers

ROEL FOR FREO! Beaconsfield Ward. Truly Independent.

Written and authorised by Roel Loopers of 5 Maxwell Street, Beaconsfield 6162.

WHITE GUM VALLEY SAYS NO TO FREIGHT LINK

I missed the PERTH FREIGHT LINK protest of the White Gum Valley Action Group yesterday due to not feeling well at all, so I pinched this photo off their Facebook page, just to show that there was a very good turn out despite the inclement weather yesterday.

Interesting to read the Federal Treasurer’s comments in the Sunday Times today where he totally ignores that the new road would also cater for private vehicles. The bullshit that it will somehow get rid of traffic congestion is untruthful spin. It will actually create more severe congestion in North Fremantle.

Even Premier Colin Barnett admits there is no elegant solution to extend Roe 8 to Fremantle Port.

Roel Loopers

ROEL FOR FREO! Truly Independent.

W.A. RAPES LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEMOCRACY

It excites me to see so much development happening in Fremantle but it also very much disappoints me that so many of the new buildings are boring and not at all the heritage of the future we were promised by Fremantle Council.

The one thing we should blame Council for is that they did not tell us the truth and that they should not have promised us anything, because approval for large development is given by the State’s Development Assessment Panel(DAP) and the State Administrative Tribunal(SAT) and Fremantle Council can only recommend against or for an applications in a submission to the State agencies.

What happens at State level reminds me a bit of the time when there was public discussion about rapists who claimed that women did not really mean it when they said no to having sex, being raped. The DAP and SAT also tell us they know what is best for the community and they don’t care that we scream and yell no to bad and inappropriate development.

The State Government says that high-density infill is good for us, so we are supposed to relax, spread our legs and let them have their way with us, so they can brutally destroy the unique character of our older suburbs with ugly out of scale monstrosities. They rape our communities with bad infill!

Two local councillors sit on DAP and often are highly frustrated because there opinion, and that of the community they represent, is overruled by the State bureaucrats who have the majority on the panels and who pretend to know better what is good for our communities. They are pro-developers, not for good appropriate development. The 17-storey building approved on the former Subiaco markets site is a good example of DAP madness and ignoring local government.

The whole planning process has become a joke that erodes local government democracy, and it does not help either to have a Council that is hell-bend on development and willing to compromise on quality too fast. That is disaster in the making.

State Government needs to lessen their influence on local planning and allow the community to decide what they want their suburbs to look like. It is madness to enforce out of scale infill in character suburbs and destroy their unique ambience when there is plenty of space for higher density buildings on the periphery.

Godlin Barnett and his disciples need to stop ramming their development religion down our throat and listen instead to what we want, and that is great modern and exceptional development in the right areas.

Roel Loopers

ROEL FOR FREO! The truly independent

Stop press! This just from WA Today:

Applecross residents vow to continue fighting two-storey, 24-hour McDonald’s after mediation hearing at the State Administrative Tribunal failed.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/#ixzz3jmiugC4D
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PERTH FREIGH LINK NOT THE BEST OPTION

It was a packed house at the Fremantle Townhall, that overflowed onto Kings Square, on Tuesday evening for the RETHINK PERTH FREIGHT LINK forum with Federal politicians Allannah MacTiernan and Scott Ludlam and the Mayors of Fremantle, Cockburn, East Fremantle and Melville. The Maritime Union of Australia was represented as was the Residents and Ratepayers Association of Cottesloe.

North Freo comedian and author Ben Elton was the MC and started the night with a powerful speech telling the audience that we might need advise from Bronwyn Bishop on how to cart dead weight around. Container freight by helicopter? He also stressed this was a community issue and not a political one.

Mayor Brad Pettitt said the State had assured him the old railway bridge would be replaced in the future but all indications were the Barnett government wanted to duplicate the Stirling traffic bridge to accommodate more trucks to the port. It would cost at least $ 500 million to do that and would have a huge impact on East Fremantle. He said that 92% of vehicles using the proposed freight link would be private cars, not trucks.

Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett said the future is in our hands and there is a better way than the PFL. Don’t trash our heritage, culture and nature for a road to nowhere.

Alannah MacTiernan told the crowd that the PFL proposal came out of the blue as there had been no State Government plans for it and it was not in the budget either. It was pushed by the Federal Government that only wants to support and fund roads. She said plans for an outer harbour had been advanced and going on since 1996 by both the Liberal and Labor governments when in power. This is truly a disgrace! Her request for documentation had been rejected because the release of the documents would cause damage between the State and Federal governments. It is such a flawed process, she said.

Senator Scott Ludlam sprouted optimism saying he believed the forum was the critical mass moment as had happened with the Ningaloo Reef and James Price Point protests that were won by the community. He said this movement could achieve the same as the city of Portland in the USA where the community rejected more freeways and the government listened and built lightrail.

Ludlam made one very important observation we should all think about “What is all this stuff in those containers? It is stuff we might not actually need!” He is right that excessive consumerism is a huge part of the problem.

He said that the Melville people were being sold-out as those along Leach Highway believed the PFL is a solution, while it would create more trucks through Melville. “It is a bullshit waste of taxpayers’ money!”

Senator Ludlam suggested to set up funds to take legal action and slow the process down in the courts and got 50 people to hand over $ 100 each to start it off.

The Mayor of Melville who supports the PFL was brave to attend and said he was talking about people’s life and that the current road network was never designed to cope with the volume of traffic it had now.

Lawyer John Hammond, who is President of the Cottesloe Residents and Ratepayers Association, told the appreciative crowd that “In Cottesloe we are getting pissed off! We don’t want it!”

It was a good forum that could have been better with shorter speeches and a longer Q&A period, but it was positive that it was not a political Barnett government bashing but real concerns about lifestyle, communities, nature and the preservation of culture.

There are other options and the State and Federal governments should explore those before they make the huge mistake of building the Perth Freight Link to Fremantle Port that only has a limited time left until it reaches capacity. A new outer harbour port near Kwinana is essential but even that needs to be handled sensitively so that it has minimal impact on the communities and nature there.

Roel Loopers