RUMOUR CONFIRMED 

A Bassendean councillor has spoken out over decisions made by the towns CEO to remove items from their chambers to make it less “intimidating”.

A portrait of the Queen has been taken down, old wooden chairs replaced with new ergonomic varieties and the Australian and West Australian flags have been removed.

Town of Bassendean CEO Peta Mabbs said the “the council chambers can be perceived as intimidating and formal by some members of the community”.

But councillor John Gangell told Gareth Parker he isn’t buying the reasoning and labelled it as “spin”.

“This wasn’t a council resolution … pulling down the portrait of the queen and removing the flags certainly was a CEO directive,” he said.

“We’ve got to remember it’s not the CEO’s chamber, it is not the Mayor’s chamber it is in fact our community’s chamber.

“It’s utopia where they are trying to come up with the reasoning other than just to say look we wanted to do something different.”

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