RATEPAYERS INCENSED AT ‘MIA’ FREO MAYOR

ELECTORS say Mayor Ben Lawver does not want to field questions over the proposed removal of trees at Hilton Park and $500,000 respite centre at the former St John ambulance depot in Parry Street.
High Street furniture maker Clint Clarke said parents at St Patricks primary school wrote to the mayor on August 25 requesting a meeting to discuss council plans to use city assets to accommodate people in crisis next door to a primary school.
“If the mayor is going live on social media with walk throughs of the proposed shelter then it suggests it’s a done deal except for funding. Considering it’s 200m from St Patrick’s primary school we expect to meet the mayor and head staff to go through the reasons why we don’t want the shelter next to our children.”
The mayor’s personal assistant Jordyn Harvey said no decision had been made: “At this stage, council has only approved the commencement of community consultation and the exploration of the proposal.
“The purpose of the current engagement process is to gather feedback from the community before any future decision is considered.”
She added: “A community information session is scheduled for 8 September, where the Mayor, City staff and representatives from St Patrick’s Community Support Centre will be available to discuss the proposal and answer questions.”
Mayor Lawver confirmed with StreetWise a few minutes ago he will attend: “I encouraged the parents of St Pats elementary to come to the drop-in session on Tuesday where city staff, St Pats, and myself would be available to have a chat and answer questions – while also being a part of the formal consultation process. I know they wanted a separate meeting but this was the best way to ensure their comments and thoughts were captured in the City’s consultation and folks were on hand to answer their questions.”
As for the September 15 electors meeting: “I’ve had a trip booked during that time for quite awhile because it was a week without any scheduled meetings. Not missing a meeting means no need to formally register the leave, but once petition was lodged I felt I should make my absence known publicly.
“The city has public advertising requirements that meant the special electors meeting could be held while I am away and we get the report for September OCM, or we wait until the end of October. I thought dealing with any motions at our September OCM was the right call. Look, this is a process right now and it doesn’t matter who runs the meeting. Nothing voted up/down has any binding requirements on council except for council to receive a staff report on approved motions and consider the information given to us. Because we’re holding this in September – any motions passed will be considered by council in a timely fashion.”
The city says the proposed respite centre, “is the critical missing piece for Freo, filling the gap between homelessness and social housing”. The proposal received council support on July 22 and continues to be promoted in its publications despite having received no development application approvals.
Mr Clarke told StreetWise parents are concerned over the safety of children attending school, the sports oval, swimming lessons at Fremantle pool and St Patrick’s Basilica.
“The kids at the school deserve a safe environment, not homeless people that need serious help,” Mr Clarke said. Parents felt Freo was turning into a ghetto: “Everyone wants to see these people off the streets, but giving them walking distance access to the overnight shelter will bring them straight back into the town centre. This respite centre should not be in an already troubled area.”
On July 8, Mr Clarke reported a ‘serious incident’ to WA Police, CC’d to the mayor and deputy mayor Fedele J Camarda, in which a man walked through Walyalup Koort playground waving around a syringe.
“I am requesting a meeting regarding what unfolded in front of my four year old and eight year old children at 12.30 yesterday at Walyalup playground and many mothers that packed up and rushed off. The person walked twice through the playground with a syringe in the air oblivious to a packed children’s playground and proceeded to wash the syringe, walk away and come back and do it again all while the police vehicle is parked there. He was clearly on another planet.”
On Thursday, Mr Clarke contacted Crs Lawver and Camarda requesting a meeting to discuss ways to improve public safety at the playground. The council responded yesterday: “We were just as outraged by this incident as the community members who witnessed it, and we take matters of this nature very seriously. This is why an immediate response was undertaken to minimise further impact on the community and assist the police with locating the offender.”
Police the individual and the city’s parks and gardens team  sanitised the fountain to ensure it was safe for the public to use.
Community safety team leader Jarrad Duggan said daily patrols and CCTV surveillance would continue and added: “We are also aware of concerns regarding an increase in antisocial behaviour, particularly in this area.”
The Parry Street centre will operate as a 24/7 service intended as short-term overnight respite for men and women (up to 10 consecutive nights), not permanent housing, while connecting them to support services, healthcare and housing solutions.
The free service would operate between 6pm and 7am and accessed via referrals. The building will be leased to St Pat’s on a peppercorn lease arrangement for five years subject to negotiations.
Mayor Lawver has said the city is a leader in local governments when it came to finding solutions to end homelessness: “The City of Fremantle could be the first local government in Western Australia to use one of its assets for this purpose.”
Former councillor Marija Vujcic said the respite centre proposal was another ‘Tent City’: “It does not say council has already supported developing the proposal, allocated $500,000 and authorised a five year peppercorn lease. It does not say the proposal still needs funding, planning and development approval.
“It does not invite submissions or give the closing date of 5pm Wednesday, 16 September.”
Ms Vujcic said supporting people experiencing homelessness matters. So does choosing the right location and publishing safeguards before the community is asked to accept the site.
“The question is not whether vulnerable people deserve support. They do. The question is whether 14 Parry Street is the right place. If the city has already decided this project is something to celebrate, what exactly are residents now being consulted about?”

Mayor misses special tree meet

WHITE Gum Valley resident Mark Woodcock is not surprised the Fremantle mayor decided not to front electors on September 15 over objections to remove trees at Hilton Park. Mayor Lawver will be on leave.
Unlike annual elector meetings, ‘special’ electors meetings are rare. The last one was held in November 2022 when more than 140 people carried several motions.
With nearly 600 signatures, electors concerned over Freo’s declining tree canopy again mobilised less than a year after the new mayor was elected to collect enough signatures to force another special meeting.
Mr Woodcock said while the city enforced strict tree retention policies and fined residents who removed trees on their property, it was ready to chop down mostly mature Norfolk Island pines at the reserve.
The city introduced its tree retention policy in March last year that required development approval for any ‘tree-damaging activity’ on trees taller than eight metres.
“When local homeowners protect their families or clear storm damage, they face red tape, threats of fines, and bureaucratic fights. But when Council wants to clear ground at Hilton Park, a grove of decades-old canopy trees gets put on the chopping block without a second thought.”
Mr Woodcock also notes the absence of those people who posed for photos at the Moreton bay fig protest in 2024 on private property at 195 High Street including Greens WA and former mayor Brad Pettitt? None of the hypocritical tree huggers showed up, he said.
Asked about the asbestos referred to by the city, Mr Woodcock said it was difficult to say except to note if contamination was extensive then the city should alert the public and include signage of the potential risks. And, he said, where are the core sampling sites to measure how much asbestos was trapped in the soil in and around pine trees pegged for axing.
Mr Woodcock’s his first online post attracted 175,000 views (equal to the number of views StreetWise attracted in the first 48 hours since having reported the opening of One Nation’s office in Fremantle). After 28 days, his post has now reached more than 300,000 online readers.
Additional reports www.streetwisemedia.com.au.