No way

I AM shocked and appalled that the cash-strapped Fremantle council has the gall to allocate $35,500 of our ratepayers’ funds in an effort to brainwash its ratepayers to vote Yes for the upcoming referendum. 

It is none of the City’s business as to how we wish to vote , and I would query the legality of the City’s ability to pull such a stunt, obviously pandering to the 5 per cent of ratepayers who wish to impose their will upon us, at our expense.

If they have the funds to splash our money about like this, how about a rates reduction?

Anthony Brown
Fremantle

Done ya dash

DEAR “honourable” Premier, I think you have done your dash as a politician. 

Resign now please before more truths come out.

The Perth Mint scandal is just the first of many.

Ps this is not a threat; I would never threaten anybody.

(Afrovite) Effie Nicholson
Applecross

In harmony with Hans

WE add our voices to that of Hans Hug (“Love our hall,” Herald Letters, February 25, 2023). 

It is disgraceful that a marvellous heritage building, concert hall and exhibition space has been allowed to disintegrate. 

There must be grant programs to help the City with the repair finances. 

We are very happy to add a substantial donation if there was a GoFundMe page. 

We would also be prepared to pay extra on my rates for a few years for a specific Fremantle Town Hall repair fund. 

If included in the rates notice it could be easy to administer.

As the carer for a partner =in a wheelchair I am so very disappointed the hall is unable to be used for musical events and exhibitions of all kinds. 

At the Fremantle Town Hall we do not need to book a specific seat as we know we can access the space easily and when we go to concerts there are always a good number of folk (not all elderly) who have various devices to help them move around.

I am sure I speak for them all when I reiterate the disappointment and frustration we feel at not having this space as an option.

The amount of time and thought that goes into getting my partner to any event is not recognised by many authorities. 

Please Fremantle city council, think outside the box and come up with the funds required – very soon!

Gillian and Ian Nicholas
Beaconsfield

Ear ear

BRAVO to Roel Loopers for blasting excessive music noise levels in restaurants and other public places not designed for out-of-control, ear-splitting revelry (“Blasted music,” Roel’s Round, February 18, 2023). 

And thanks too to Sheila Robbshaw for supporting him. 

I was expecting a deluge of letters in support, matching the number of complaints so often expressed by diners who want to talk without shouting over the conversation-killing “background music”.  

Have they been struck dumb by restaurateurs refusing to listen to their complaints? 

If we can’t beat them, perhaps we could join them. 

Customers could shout their “conversation” as loudly as possible until the music is turned down and civilised dining is resumed. 

Vocally challenged diners could simply let it be known, when paying the bill for service that ruined their night, that they would not be back until the disco-diner dropped the disco element to just-discernible background music. 

And what about “No loud music here” advertisements by canny restaurateurs?

Hope we don’t have to march down High Street chanting, “What do we want? etc…”. We’re way too old for that.

Gerald Hitchcock
South Fremantle

Broke… woke

THE Herald has detailed the shabby interior of the  Fremantle Town Hall and the ‘distressing’ state of the new Fremantle Local History Centre in major front page stories.

How is it possible, after over-spending by $20 million on the $63 million new admin building which incorporates these two facilities, that such important city centre assets are in such dire straits?

The Town Hall should be an income earner for the ratepayer as a stunning premier venue with its gorgeous decoration and wonderful acoustics. 

It should be hosting events and weddings, with Victoria Hall acting as an overflow. 

But the Town Hall interior will need $5 million to restore, and Victoria Hall around $1 million. 

Yet there is no money left (except for ideological programs like promoting the Voice to Parliament),  and the $960,000 promised annual income council said it would get from renting part of their new admin building so far has raised around $38,000, while the loan cost borne by ratepayers each year is $1.2 million.

The Fremantle Society took Crs Camarda and Vujcic and experts through the Town Hall. 

It needs urgent works to make it more usable – like connecting the air conditioning from the new building. 

It needs the sort of grant Perth got from the WA government to restore His Majesty’s.

The Fremantle Society visited the newly extended Albany Local History Centre (pictured) where a large new light and airy space houses 2,500 items for people to access immediately. 

Fremantle needs to stop its cancel culture and give us back what we used to have – the best Local History Library in the state.

But the council seems broke and woke –  focused on selling off its few remaining assets, including Victoria Hall, which the community needs as a cultural and performing arts space. 

The sale of Quarry Street and Point Street have been poorly handled,  and next to go will be the Leisure Centre Car Park, further adding to car parking woes.

The verdict is in about the success of the King’s Square Business Plan. 

Three Labor heavyweights don’t like it. 

Carmen Lawrence says it “will blight Fremantle for the next 100 years.” 

Former Fremantle MP John Troy says it is simply a transfer of public assets to private developers. 

Former Fremantle MP David Parker says it is a sterile development devoid of its magnificent trees, with FOMO not just being a failure, but an “aesthetic and safety disaster”. 

But we need the city centre to work.

The Herald has shone a bright light on the needs of the Local History Centre 

and Town Hall interior. The community now needs to take a blowtorch to those councillors responsible, and get some action.

John Dowson President
The Fremantle Society