SPEED HUMPS planned for increasingly busy Wray Avenue are dividing the otherwise harmonious funky village precinct.

Fremantle council is canvassing locals on plans to install two plateau-style humps between South Terrace and Manning Street (the shops end of the street). Included is a pedestrian crossing, a dedicated loading bay and an access bay closer to the shops.

Council manager Philip Adams says there’s a history of rear-ending, side-swiping and parking-related crashes in the area.

Butcher Frank Carbone says he sees hoons zooming along and supports the humps.

• While the Galatis’ store on Wray Ave won’t be matching the $0 potato price their cousin Tony is offering this weekend, they support and commend his decision to give away his extra spuds rather than dump them. Pictured above are Santo, Frances, Salvatore and Anthony. Tony Galati meanwhile has won the support of WA Labor leader Mark McGowan (pictured here with Tony and his sons) in his campaign to abolish WA’s spud quota.

“The avenue is quite tight but you still get silly drivers flying up and down,” he says.

He says it’s important the planned loading bay is big enough as it’s large delivery truck that “block the street”.

“When you have one of them delivering and a bus is coming the other way, it blocks everything.”

Neighbouring grocer Salvatore Galati says the humps are a waste of money: “There are so many people parking and pulling out in cars that is impossible to speed at this end of the avenue,” he told the Herald. “This is a busy shopping strip and the coming and going of traffic serves as a natural traffic-calming measure.

“The council would be better off spending the money on maintaining and increasing the number of footpaths in the city.”

Resident Mark LaHogue is all for them: “There is a school nearby and when you drive down the avenue first thing in the morning the sun is right in your eyes. I think it will be a good addition as it is quite a built-up area with lots of traffic.”

But David Wills says the council should instead rip out the roundabout at South Terrace, because its installation had turned Wray Avenue into a rat run. “Rather than remove the offending roundabout the city now proposes a band-aid traffic management scheme to manage a problem of their own causing,” he says.

Residents can comment at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/wraycalming

by STEPHEN POLLOCK