Rebels bikies have taunted Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett they’re moving into residential Coogee because the council has shut down their clubhouse in industrial Bibra Lake.
The bikies also hinted to a councillor they were planning a mass protest—over a coffee—at the Phoenix shops across the road from the council’s headquarters on Thursday evening, shortly after the Herald’s deadline.
Last week the city refused the Rebels’ bid to get retrospective approval for their clubhouse on Kembla Drive, where they’ve been gathering since October last year.
The city only found out about their presence from an Organised Crime Squad tip-off. The crime squad was looking for council help in getting the gang evicted.
The mayor confirmed a gang member called him, but says he didn’t feel threatened.
“I did get a phone call, but I don’t think it’s appropriate or necessary to comment,” he said.
Threatening
“I didn’t feel threatened and there are always different responses to circumstances and outcomes of council decisions.”
But councillor Steve Portelli confirmed a biker had rung Mr Howlett “threatening to set up their clubrooms in a Coogee residential property”.
“He also suggested they were going to have coffee en-masse this Thursday evening at Phoenix shopping centre.
“Hopefully they have calmed down and it was just heat of the moment stuff.”
Cr Portelli said he got a phone call from a Rebel after last month putting up a motion to deny the planning application. Although the motion lost, he asked that his “no” vote be recorded in the minutes.
The council then voted for a deferral in order to get a briefing with police and talk to the Rebels. It also wanted to check with its lawyers on where it stood regarding liability and community risk.
“The 12-minute conversation was fairly amicable and he understood my position,” Cr Portelli said about the call from the Rebel.
“Though for most part the conversation was reasonable, the statement that he would look to buy up homes in Aubin Grove and Atwell for his clubrooms, if they were kicked out of Spearwood, was not appropriate. Guess where I live?”
A Rebel member who didn’t want to be named said the gang was eyeing off property in the suburbs.
“Yeah, a couple of our guys have houses in the suburbs,” he said, without mentioning where.
He wouldn’t say if the gang was planning a coffee sit-in at the Phoenix Shops any time in the near future.
“Well, you will have to come down and see,” he said.
by BRENDAN FOSTER