Street art…not

THE intersection of South Terrace and Jenkin Street has been upgraded recently. 

Unfortunately, there has been little improvement. 

The uplift of the road surface does not slow down the traffic, and the pedestrian islands have been removed, making crossing busy South Terrace more difficult and dangerous. 

The “artistic” road markings are confusing and look like someone has dropped a bucket of paint on the road. 

There are no trees yet, and too few places to put them. 

The pavement has been improved, but the businesses on two corners have failed to take full advantage of this and build gazebos for their customers.

It is what it is. Can it be improved? Yes, in three ways.

1. The intersection can be made into a small roundabout which would slow down traffic, and give better access for Jenkin St users.

2. The road markings can be removed.

3. More places can be made for trees to be planted.

Gordon Payne
South Fremantle

Basic timing

Your article on page 7 of this weeks Fremantle Herald (“Staff pay pushes Freo rates up 6%,” May 14, 2022) shows our new Mayor trumpeting the great fact hat she is projecting “only” a 6 per cent rate increase for the 2022/23 year but interestingly we have yet to see the production of a set of accounts for the year ending June 30 2021 – the 2020/21 year.

This in any commercial environment would rather indicate groping in the dark with no reference data to go on.

Has the Council got something to hide or is there a problem perhaps in getting the accounts past the auditor?

As ratepayers we are entitled to get these accounts in a timely manner. 

Apart from letting us know just how our city’s finances are faring, one of the things they would

enable us to assess is how much (or little) the council has in it’s cash reserves, perhaps available for release in order to stop the “hand to mouth, payday to payday” methodology seemingly employed in running our finances.

Bill Ody
South Fremantle

The Ed says: We have been hearing regular gripes from the council about how long its taking the auditor general’s office to get back with the accounts.

Mulched

NOTHING in the past has been so pleasing than to see the gardeners care for the grass in and around the playing fields in Marmion Reserve on the corner of Marmion street and Mullings Way.

To find anything wrong with the current work is something I do not undertake very lightly.

I have observed in the last few days that the grass strip between the playing field oval and the footpath in Mullings Way has been replaced by woodchips.

It was always a delight in summer to sit on the grass under the trees, watching the cricket match on the oval. Also it was easy to walk across the grass from the parked cars. Children could also play on the grass.

The replacement woodchips are rough and uncomfortable, and dirty when water sodden. 

In summer the woodchips will be dry and splintery, and a hazard for children to walk on from their parked car to the playing field.

The grass has always grown very well. I believe there should be more thought given to the people who watch and participate in the activities on the oval, and these woodchips be removed and replaced with the original grass.

Richard Rennie
Melville