oneperth.com.au | Perth news

CHRIS THOMSON

As if the Innaloo Megaplex were not big enough, it is set to double in size with the addition of a bowling alley, karaoke songhall, Skirmish zone and IGA supermarket.

Government planners have urged that a $50 million expansion floated by national investment company Challenger be approved at a State planning committee meeting to be held on Wednesday night.

A City of Stirling plea that the government reject the project has fallen on deaf ears.

The expanded Megaplex would have space for 1415 cars, and increased traffic is one reason for the city’s opposition.

The Megaplex is already Perth’s largest movie hall – with 16 screens, a Timezone amusement den and five eateries.

However, most of its 6.82 hectare site is made up of ground level, bitumen car park.

If approved on Wednesday night, the project will double the size of the complex.

No more screens are proposed, but 11,000 square metres of floorspace would be added to the existing 10,556sqm.

An east-west street would be inserted to link Liege Street and a future extension of Odin Road.

A six-storey building at the northeast corner of the site, fronting both Liege Street and the high street, would have 7550sqm of lettable floor area.

In this building, a 150sqm cafe fronting Liege Street and the internal street would compete for customers with the Megaplex’s existing Dome cafe.

A 1500sqm house of fun – including bowling alley, paintball, games and karaoke would be built beside the northern side of the centre fronting the new street.

A 950sqm IGA supermarket would be ‘bolted on’ to the northwest edge of the existing complex.

Eateries and other shopfronts would fill 1050sqm of new space beside the centre’s existing northern edge.

The plans were advertised locally in January and received nine objections, one expression of support, and another supporting comment that objected to the IGA only.

STAFF REPORTER

Three youths allegedly tried to rob a charity sausage sizzle in a brazen drive-by heist outside a Bunnings hardware shop this afternoon.

Police spokesman Neil Blair said that at 1.30pm the youths’ car cruised through the car park of Bunnings in Rockingham and stopped alongside a sausage sizzle being conducted by the Lions charity group.

Inspector Blair said the youths jumped out of the car and allegedly tried to steal a tin containing the sizzle’s proceeds.

Members of the public intervened and stopped the trio from leaving until the police arrived.

The three were being interviewed by police this afternoon.

CHRIS THOMSON

The Bayswater IGA X-Press has been convicted of health breaches and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

A Department of Health conviction notice posted today reveals shop owner Quang Thanh Nguyen will have to pay after his Beechboro Road supermarket failed a City of Bayswater inspection on January 31.

Mr Nguyen was convicted on July 15 for having unclean premises and equipment, failing to provide a pest-free environment, inadequate food storage and a maintenance breach.

CHRIS THOMSON

An unassuming cluster of op shops could transform Fremantle’s ugly East End into a mini Portobello Road says international cities guru Charles Landry.

Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London, claims to be the world’s largest antiques market.

Landry said the jaded eastern end of Fremantle’s High Street could become a mini Portobello which would invigorate the area.

“We felt it’s a very unusual cluster,” the urban theorist concluded at the end of a ‘creativity index’ he prepared recently for the port city.

“It’s pretty unusual and, when you think of Portobello Road which everybody thinks is unbelievable, that’s how Portobello Road started.

“It began to segment itself between real junk and better junk and it’s already happening (in High Street) when you look at the clothes thing.”

However, Landry noted that Bohemian Fremantle needed to get real about attracting local investment.

“Whilst there’s a sort of generalised cultural, social sense of what Fremantle should be, the economic is detached,” Landry summed up.

“I haven’t heard anyone saying: ‘this is the economic future of Fremantle, this is what we’re going to survive on, this is going to be the thing that’s going to pay for all these social inclusion projects that we need and want and so on’.

“And that seems to me a major disconnect.”

Another disconnect was vapid Kings Square which sits in the shadows of the stark Myer building not far from the op shops.

“In order to enliven that space, you need to strengthen these things from the side and pump energy into the square and then you might have an activity program as well in there,” Landry said.

Landry suggested putting “something essential there … so that people have to go there”.

Over the past 30 years Landry has travelled the globe advising underachieving cities how to lively up themselves.

STAFF REPORTER

From tonight, all shoppers across metropolitan Perth will finally be able to shop at the grocery store of their choice until 9pm.

Perth’s new retail trading hours regime will give general retail shops – including major grocery stores Woolworths and Coles – the option to trade to 9pm weeknights.

Premier Colin Barnett said the extension of weeknight trading will apply across the whole metropolitan area.

“Business will now have greater freedom to respond to particular needs of their customers and won’t be locked into outdated shopping hours,” Mr Barnett said.

“It is entirely their option to open during the extended hours.”

National grocery giants Woolworths and WA-owned Coles have said all their metropolitan shops will open until 9pm week nights from tonight.

From November 7, new special trading areas in Armadale and Midland will allow Woolworths and Coles to trade there on Sundays.

This will bring retail shopping regulations in Armadale and Midland into line with that already existing in central Perth, Fremantle and Joondalup.

Mandurah city administrators have drafted a plan to trump all these areas by letting retailers in the centre of town stay open from 8am to 9pm 362-days-a-year.

CHRIS THOMSON

Inner city visitors say Perth council has jumped the gun by installing Christmas decorations in October.

In the CBD, a flock of mock angels already maintains mute vigil over Forrest Place.

And in Northbridge, William, James and Lake Streets have been decorated since October 24.

On James Street today, Joan Forward of Karrinyup said that decking the halls two months before Christmas Day was premature.

“I hate them being up so early,” Ms Forward told oneperth.com.au.

“I think it loses the whole impact of Christmas if they have them up in October.”

Ms Forward said traders at Karrinyup Shopping Centre had gone one step further by decorating one month earlier, in September. She said she had complained to the manager of David Jones there.

Also on James Street, Willeton-based businessman Stephen Sun disagreed, saying the city council had got its timing right.

“Two months (before Christmas) is fair enough,” Mr Sun said.

“The earlier you remind people, the more business you get.

“If you put (decorations) up two weeks before Christmas, people would forget.”

A council spokesman said the decorations would remain on display until January 6.

This means that by the time it is due to come down, the ornamentation will have been up for 10 weeks, and in four calendar months.

The spokesman said all decorations needed to be up by November 12 for the ‘turning on of the Christmas lights’ event in Forrest Place.

“This extremely popular event coincides with retailers’ Christmas sales campaigns,” he said.

“It may not be readily appreciated that installing thousands of Christmas decorations is a big task and takes considerable time as the work is carried out at night and on weekends to avoid disruption to city users.”

Richard Bell of Currambine said the early installation only served to feed insatiable Christmas commercialism.

“For me, Christmas is more about relaxing and having fun with family rather than just presents,” Mr Bell said.

“But it’s become more materialistic – about getting the latest games, the latest thing and the newest presents.”

The Shire President of Christmas Island, which sits between Perth and Jakarta, said decorations for the post-Ramadan holiday of Hari Raya had only come down last month.

“It is a bit (early for Christmas decorations),” Councillor Gordon Thomson said.

He said that, unlike Perth, his remote Australian territory had no set date for erecting decorations.

“We’re an island nation (sic),” Cr Thomson said.

“We haven’t got a timetable for that one.”

CHRIS THOMSON

Mandurah has demanded longer shopping hours than in Perth and a plan to be debated on Monday night may deliver that.

City administrators have recommended that Commerce Minister Bill Marmion be asked to approve shopping in central Mandurah from 8am to 9pm every night of the year excluding Christmas, Good Friday and ANZAC Day.

Locals also want shops elsewhere in Mandurah to be allowed to open from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm Saturday and 8am to 5pm on Sunday.

The recommended trading hours are longer than in central Perth, Fremantle and Joondalup.

These centres were recently liberated to trade from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sunday.

New laws enacted from November 1 will let shops in any centre across metropolitan Perth open until 9pm Monday to Friday.

Currently, Mandurah shops can open 8am to 6pm Monday to Wednesday, 8am to 9pm on Thursday, and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.

In July, Mr Marmion refused Mandurah’s application for extended trading.

Undeterred, the city commissioned an independent survey of 800 respondents which has found strong support for extended trading to 9pm seven days a week.

Sixty-five per cent of surveyed visitors to Mandurah said they would be more likely to return under an extended hours regime.

In a separate council consultation, the Peel Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that 75.5 per cent of its members supported longer trading hours.

Coles Supermarkets – a West Australian owned company – said 35 new fulltime jobs would be created in Mandurah across the company’s Coles, Kmart and Target businesses.

Among those opposing longer shopping hours were the Australian Newsagents Federation WA and the Farmer Jacks outlet at Halls Head.

A special meeting of Mandurah council will on Monday night decide whether to push the issue with Mr Marmion again.

Meanwhile, to Mandurah’s north, a plan to let Rockingham shops trade every Sunday – rather than just during school holidays as per the present regime – is being considerd by the council there.

Of 552 public submissions received by Rockingham council, 467 supported permanent Sunday trading.

CHRIS THOMSON

JULY 16, 2011 UPDATE: COUNCIL STAFF ON TUESDAY NIGHT TO SEEK COUNCILLORS’ APPROVAL OF $3.5 MILLION BUDGET TO COMPLETE THE ‘HALF-MALL’ BY AUGUST 2012.

Plans are afoot to convert Perth’s poshest suburban high street into a half-mall to stop it degrading into a jaded urban backwater.

A report drafted by Town of Claremont strategic planner Michael Swanepoel asks town councillors to endorse his so-called ‘shared space’ plan for Bay View Terrace.

In recent years, King Street in Perth and High Street in Fremantle have received the ‘shared space’ treatment – being converted from two-way to one-way streets by widening the footpaths on both sides.

“This hybrid approach, with the majority of the street reserved for people, represents the best of both worlds – cars moving slowly, while people enjoy the wider footpaths, more trees and increased sitting opportunities,” Mr Swanepoel advises.

On top of the extra paving, Mr Swanepoel would like to see more car-free events scheduled for the street.

He says the street is being challenged as the traditional heart of Claremont by a new piazza and laneway developed as part of the Claremont Quarter project.

“If the status quo is maintained, the prosperity of (Bay View Terrace) and the town centre may be threatened,” he advises.

“Given the focus of these new developments, it is timely to improve the street by providing more places for people to linger longer, so that its traditional role as the heart of the Claremont town centre can be secured for the long term.”

Mr Swanepoel says people-watching is an important part of the street’s culture that should be enhanced.

“A special quality of the street has been that people go there to see and be seen,” he advises.

“Providing a selection of places for people to meet, gather and enjoy is how the street can continue to attract more people …

“Streets with a focus on attracting people should also be comfortable; more trees and greenery as well as seating along Bay View Terrace will make it more pleasant for people.”

The town has already asked some shoppers and shopkeeps their views on the plan which will be debated by councillors on Tuesday night.