A HANDFUL of Roe 8 supporters protested at last week’s Cockburn council meeting, annoyed that the city erected a sign congratulating WA Labor on axing the controversial project.

Cockburn resident Jean Taylor and her husband John brandished a ‘WE NEED ROE 8’ sign in council chambers, prompting Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett to ask them to put the sign down or leave.

“I think they just gag you,” Mrs Taylor says.

“We sent emails to all these councillors and we got a reply from one person—Steve Portelli.”

“I had no choice but to hold up a little sign to say ‘I am here. I do want it. And I do pay rates’.

“I think a poll of the city would be a darned good idea.

“It’s the least the council could do to give people their say and it should have been done years ago really.”

Hammond Park resident Steven Greenwood has started a petition calling on the council to do a Roe 8 phone poll.

“We call on the City of Cockburn to consult and engage with its residents on Roe 8 to be built between Kwinana Freeway and Stock Road,” he said.

At the meeting Cr Portelli tried to table a motion to conduct the phone poll, but he was told to submit the motion in writing ahead of the next meeting.

Cr Portelli says conducting a phone poll would cost around $14,400, and would ask residents, “Do you support Roe Highway stage 8 to be constructed from Kwinana Freeway to Stock Road?”

The federal government has agreed to divert the $1.2 billion it allocated for the Perth Freight Link to WA Labor’s Metronet and other projects, including the Armadale Bridge upgrades.

by CHARLIE SMITH