FINALLY! BB TO VQ CONNECTION

It has been a very looooooooooong time coming, but there is finally a proper connection between Bathers Beach and Victoria Quay. The City of Fremantle poured the concrete path in front of J Shed today, and Fremantle Ports will put a raised pedestrian crossing at Fleet Street.

J Shed photographer Peter Zuvela and I were musing about it this morning, that we were part of a working group that recommended improvements, such as the path, over ten years ago.

Now if we could get the lights back that used to colourfully light up the Arthur’s Head cliff face on the beach side, and also build a toilet at our only inner city beach, I might start believing that miracles do happen. 🥰

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE CELEBRATES WALYALUP HISTORY

A good new display in the Walyalup Civic Centre tells the history of Fremantle and the connection to our First Nations People.

Fremantle Council has been a leader in Aboriginal reconciliation, with the first policy introduced in 2010. We were the first city to stop the official Australia Day celebrations, and established the Walyalup Reconciliation Action Plan-WRAP three years ago. I am proud to have been on the working groups for both these policies, a decade apart.

Go have a look and read the historic information!

Roel Loopers

CRIME AND CORRUPTION COMMISSIONER WANTS COUNCIL SEPARATION CLARIFICATION

In last week’s Roel’s Round column in the Fremantle Herald I wrote about the separation between elected members and the administration at local government, so it is interesting to read today that John McKechnie, the Crime and Corruption Commissioner, believes that the boundary between Councillors and Council staff is unclear and could present a misconduct risk.

The Commissioner said there needed to be clarification in the legislation about the relationship between staff and elected members, as misinterpretation could allow elected members to justify their own inaction. The confusion also allowed CEOs to not give Councillors all the information they have a right to receive, according to John McKechnie.

I still find the fact that councils employs the CEOs but can’t direct them what to do very confusing. Who is the boss? Clarification, as suggested by the CC Commissioner, might well be a good idea.

Roel Loopers

TRANSPARENCY RULES IN ROEL’S ROUND

My Roel’s Round column in the Fremantle Herald this week is about the administration of local councils also taking responsibility for what they do, or don’t do, and not unfairly leaving it to the Mayors to be the only spokespersons.

You can read it here: https://heraldonlinejournal.com/2023/09/01/transparency-rules/

Roel Loopers

MANY HAD THEIR SAY ABOUT STRATEGIC COMMUNITY PLAN

More than 4,900 people contributed to the City of Fremantle’s new Strategic Community Plan, through digital and face-to-face interactions, at more than 40 events across Fremantle.

1,400 separate pieces of feedback were captured through online surveys, written submissions, emails, audio interviews, facilitated panel conversations, articles and videos.

People who live, work and play in Fremantle were encouraged to have their say across a range of important issues affecting the city’s future.

The program concluded with the Weekend of Courageous Conversations in July, which was attended by approximately 200 people at the Fremantle Town Hall.
The six key focus topics were: Creative city, Learning city, Living in your local area, Future of our city centre, Climate future, Jobs for the future. Housing affordability also emerged as a major community issue.

Roel Loopers

JEMIMA LAUNCHES HER FREO COUNCIL CAMPAIGN

Unfortunately a bad headache, that I still have this morning, prevented me from going to the Council candidacy launch of Jemima Williamson-Wong at the Patio Bar last night.

But I pinched a few photos of the event from Facebook, one with former Freo Mayor and now MLC Brad Pettitt and the other one with that wonderful singer Mama Kin.

Jemima is standing for the new Coastal Ward that stretches all the way from the Freo inner city and CBD to South Fremantle. The local government elections will be held on October 21.

Roel Loopers

HOW EMBARRASSING! AN OLD FREO CITY MAP TO SUPPORT HOMELESSNESS.

The City of Fremantle posted this map on Facebook to promote this year’s Homelessness Week, but like I pointed out last year, the map is not up to date and still has the Fremantle Library at Fremantle Oval, when in fact it has been in the Walyalup Civic Centre for two years now.

The map also shows the Australia Post Office in Market Street, when it is on the corner of Queen and Adelaide streets, and names our city square Kings Square, when it was renamed to Walyalup Koort for over a year.

From the City of Fremantle Facebook page: ” In recognition of Homelessness week we’re highlighting some of the services across Fremantle. Our community support map: which can be found across Fremantle (and is pictured below).”

This is truly embarrassing Freo. Get your act together!

Roel Loopers

HILTON PARK PRECINCT PLACE PLAN CONSULTATION

The City of Fremantle is developing a Place Plan and Master Plan to create a vision for the Hilton Park Precinct, so that it can plan for renewal of the precinct as a modern civic green space that meets the needs and wants of the community.

Fremantle Council wants to hear from the community what their ideas and aspirations for the area are. They are holding a BBQ on Saturday, August 26 from 10am to 2pm.

The Hilton Park Precinct refers to the area bounded by Lefroy Road, Carrington Street, Jeffery Street and Shepherd Street in Beaconsfield. See map.

The project will result in:

• A Place Plan – A document that provides the background, analysis, opportunities and vision that inform the future of the space.
• A Master Plan – A graphical concept plan for the precinct, that includes preliminary costing to deliver the future space.

These documents will provide the City with the framework to guide the renewal of the space and a tool to source funding, both internally (e.g. through budget allocation) and externally (e.g. grants).

If you use this space, or want to use this space, the City likes to hear from you.

They want to know how you use it, how you would like to use it, and what’s important about the Hilton Park Precinct to you.

Roel Loopers

NOMINATE FOR YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL!

Members of the Western Australian community are being urged to consider nominating for the upcoming local government elections to be able to influence the decisions being made that potentially impact the lives of thousands of residents.

Local Government Minister David Michael said, by standing for local council, candidates will make a valuable contribution to local democracy by putting forward policies and highlighting issues they believe are important to them and their community.

A promotional campaign by the Cook Government, in partnership with the WA Local Government Association, will aim to promote diversity in local government representation with the hope it will result in greater involvement of a wider range of candidates from Aboriginal and multicultural backgrounds, as well as young people and people with disability.

The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries has also teamed up with the Youth Affairs Council of WA to conduct a campaign specifically targeting the 18-24 age group to boost the interest of young people in getting involved in local government.

To provide incentives for people to nominate, the local government reform package includes measures to support a diverse range of people who serve on councils, such as new parental leave entitlements, and changes to enable local governments to pay superannuation and educational allowances to council members.

Nominations for the local government elections to be held on 21 October will open on 31 August and close on 7 September 2023.

PROPOSED SMOKING AND VAPING BAN FOR WALYALUP KOORT AND HIGH STREET MALL

I have always been of the opinion that Australia is over regulated. Our Big Brother governments try to take as many liberties away from us commoners as possible and are eroding our freedom and rights.

So I was aghast to read that retiring Fremantle Councillor Rachel Pemberton is going to put a motion to the FPOL Committee of Fremantle Council this coming Wednesday to ban smoking and vaping at Walyalup Koort and in the High Street mall.

I often sit in the sun at Walyalup Koort for twenty minutes or so and never felt I was a victim of passive smoking. Our city square is very big and the seats are far apart, so why bother?

There are sometimes 5-7 people sitting together in the mall, and some of them smoke. Freo City has tried to get rid off them by taking some public seating out of the mall, now banning smoking and vaping is supposed to do the trick.

Leave if alone! I don’t smoke or vape, but unless the State Government makes smoking and vaping in public illegal, Fremantle Council should focus on really important things.

Roel Loopers