HILTON/SAMSON ward candidate Catherine Hammond wants more people with business savvy on Fremantle council.

Ms Hammond runs three online businesses and says a port city in Western Australia should be flourishing, not languishing as Fremantle has been doing for the last decade.

“There are places closing down over the last years, and they are leaving, including the cruise ships.

• Catherine Hammond

“It’s so sad that that’s been taken away and it’s no surprise when the entry to the city looks at Captain Munchies and the graffities Woolstores.”

A stickler for law and order Ms Hammond took aim at mayor Brad Pettitt’s support for graffiti art, saying it’s sent a bad sub-conscious message to youngsters.

“I am an artist and I love street art, but when you say things like that it spreads like wildfire,” she said, although she couldn’t point to any major graffiti outbreaks since the council introduced its policy two years ago.

Ms Hammond says she’s also running on an environmental and heritage platform, saying she’d take inspiration from her time living in Vienna, as it had green belts between buildings and took great pride in maintaining its heritage assets.

She also wants the council to steer clear of federal and state issues, saying she’d be there to represent her constituents, not to “polish my political aspirations.”

“I want more substance rather than political agendas and less mateship and more diversity,” she says.

She reckons the council could have saved a bucket negotiating with the Dockers over handing back Fremantle Oval if it had a little more business nous in the chamber.

Ms Hammond also wants the council to flip its plans for its new admin building upside down, saying the community should be getting the upper floors, while council staff “should be in the basement”. She worries the new square won’t produce the economic recovery the council is hoping for, saying the 1500 state bureaucrats and council staff will all be heading home at 5pm and leaving it empty.