6am Oxford St lockout approved
Oxford St and Taylor Square licensed venues have agreed to a trial patron lockout between 6am and 9am on weekends.
During the three month trial, starting in December, patrons leaving a venue between those times will not be allowed back into that venue or any other in the Surry Hills Liquor Licensing Accord area.
I initially asked for a closure, but we negotiated it back to a lockout, Surry Hills Police Commander Donna Adney told Sydney Star Observer.
We essentially wanted an opportunity to clear out the area, so people who live in the area have an opportunity to enjoy the amenity. You can’t do that when there’s people affected by alcohol, making a nuisance of themselves.
The effectiveness of the trial will be under constant review during the three months, and exemptions will be made during hallmark events such as Mardi Gras and New Year’s Eve. Surry Hills Police also pushed the use of plastic cups instead of glass.
Our statistics show an escalation of alcohol-related crime from around 3am onwards. It’s not that there’s necessarily more [after 6am] but from my point of view there’s too much for that time period, Adney said.
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Sally Fielke said the decision had the AHA’s full support. The historic decision clearly demonstrates that local solutions can be devised to address local issues, she said.
However, some 24-hour venues as far as Strawberry Hills will be affected, despite the case being presented as an issue centralised to Taylor Square.
Exchange Hotel licensee Darren Hickey said he didn’t sleep too well after the meeting because his Phoenix Rising day club didn’t normally start until 6.30am and would be directly impacted by the lockout. However, he wanted to be a team player in tackling violence on the strip.
There are only 11 venues affected, but at least we can still operate, Hickey told Sydney Star Observer.
We want to do what we can because if they end up having to shut down T2, those people will come further down Oxford St, maybe to the Phoenix. We’d need an army to keep those type of people out, and that could drive out our existing customers.
Talk of a 2am or 3am shutdown, proposed by NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and supported by several cabinet ministers, continued to spook licensees, Hickey said, especially when violence was occurring outside venues rather than inside.
Hickey said he hoped police would continue the high visibility patrols that started when Commander Adney took over at Surry Hills, because it costs a lot of money for us to keep security out there all the time.
I agree with Peter, the problem was never violence in Gay venues, and yet the Gay patrons are the ones being punished, and endangered even. I don’t go out so late any more, but I always new that after 2am the safest place was inside a club, not hanging about on the street trying to get a taxi.
Did the NSW Police consider Gay venues are a safe place against street violence? Blocking people out of venues will endanger people who are under threat of such violence. It is also contrary to the venues’ duty of care to their patrons.
We need to get this idiotic policy scrapped. It was ill informed and wrongly targetted, not to mention smacking of homophobia.
Hetrosexualism – The disease of society.
Wakey wakey! – this is disgusting not just an inconvenience. The gay clubs and pubs are forced to close their doors because of straight violence that is generally directed at their gay patrons. Thats a real case of punishing the victims. Well done the sensitive cops that imposed this one. The imposition is clear. This is not something our clubs would agree to without threat so they threatened. What after all this time is wrong with the police in Surry Hills Command. I thought we had travelled a long and painful road together. They should think before doing this sort of thing.
I work in one of the affected Pubs…
I can understand why the police/council want to close pubs earlier in the area, you have to admit that Oxford St gets pretty crazy on the weekends… but the and when i say ‘they’ i mean police and media….they only go on about alcohol.. you never hear them going on about the junkies/druggies and homeless in the area and lack of police support.
Also..don’t get me started on plastic cups!!!!..I’m told as of this week, pubs in the area have to go to plastic after 11:30pm every night. The police won’t say how long this will go on for… they also say that the pubs “don’t have to” go to plastic but if they don’t it “may have to become a condition of their license”.
So as a bartender… a lot of us aren’t happy with early lock out or plastic cups either.
The 6am lockout strikes me as being a bandaid solution… if the patient is bleeding to death and the bandaid is stuck onto the wrong bit.
Yeah 6am is about the time when people have had enough to drink!??!!?!?! (Here I was thinking that 6am was about the time for people to get up out of bed!) By 6am the horse has bolted, the drunks have keeled over, the drug dealers have deposited their takings and even the tragics have managed to pick up or go home!! Are these people who make these stupid decision serious? or are they just playing us like fools! 2am lock out!
Lock the Druggies out between 6 and 9am
Hi all,
Recently received the following in my inbox (Clover Moore’s circular). It’s an open forum and will concentrate on community safety. I think it will be a great opportunity to make sure your opinion is heard and find out what the City is doing about the current problems on Oxford Street
Marcus
THIRD GLBT FORUM
The City’s third Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Forum on Tuesday 11 November, will focus on community safety and include updates on current City projects, including plans for returning public art to Mary’s Place in Surry Hills and the City’s Oxford Street Cultural Quarter Strategy. The forum is open to everyone
with an interest in GLBT issues.
The forum will also include a presentation on GLBT NSW 2020 by Mark Orr, ACON President. This project seeks to involve the GLBT community in determining the kind of future it wants in 2020. An initial summit with GLBT organisations was recently held and a steering committee set up to guide the project. Mr Orr will speak about the outcomes of the
initial discussions, plans for community consultations and the opportunities to complement the City’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision.
Suzie Matthews, Manager of Social Policy and Community Support and Superintendent Donna Adney of Surry Hills Police will give a joint presentation on community safety. Pip Ditzell, the City’s GLBT Project Coordinator will report on the City’s work with the GLBT community.
Time has been set aside for discussion and questions. City Officers will also be available to answer any questions about the City’s Late Night Trading Development Control Plan and development applications for licensed premises.
Information
* Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Forum, Tuesday 11 November, Reception Room, Level 3, Town Hall House (enter via Kent Street), 7-9pm.
* Pip Ditzell, GLBT Project Coordinator, 9265 9333 or email
2am lockdown? – to imagine that is just plain scary – oh well, I guess the sex clubs will be cheering, im sure there popularity will increase becuase of this.
6am lockout? WOW WE ARE SAVED!!! (Sarcastic tone).
Do the people who have made this decision REALLY think that they have made a difference here??
The papers always read that violence on the street was high during the times of 3am – 6am, how the hell is a 6am lock down going to solve the problem when the problems begin before the lock down time? HELLO???
A 6am lockout – are they for real? How about a 2am lockout?
Or what about a proposed closing time of 1o:00pm if things don’t change. Now that might “spook licencees” into doing something.
This hardly seems like effective addressing of violence and alcohol and other drug use issues..
trashed people on the street unable to get into other venues and trashed people inside who can’t leave unless they wanna go home..does this not then potentially flood the streets with a volatile mix of messy people on the streets?
and different venues having different rules, that’s just confusing.
There has to be a better way to address the problems, seems to just add to them and create others.
Oxford st is officially dead. Who the hell would want to go out there anymore anyway except for a bunch of despos. Theres violence, heavy handed cops with their dogs intimidating people and now this crap, yay sounds like a real fun time. Its the straights that have changed the culture in a negative way. Its typical of the dickhead yobbo culture that is rife in Australia and now because of a minority of troublemaker thugs that the stupid cops are incapable of controlling everyone is treated like potential crims. Sydney sux.
Someone forgot to mention that in addtion to this 6 a.m Oxford St lockout, there have been 50 individual pubs identified to which speacial conditions will apply from December 1st. These include Arq and Stonewall which now have a 2 a.m. lockout – ouch! that’s gonna hurt.
On te bright side, it might now breath some life into that old corpse, the Shift.