Residents unite to battle against hotel saturation

Residents of Darlinghurst and Surry Hills have formed an action committee to fight the expansions of hotels and clubs that create havoc after dark.

Hyde Park Community Voice (HPCV) have set up a website for residents to submit personal impact statements about Oxford St venues that are currently appealing rejected development applications.

Councillors are listening, HPCV spokeswoman Christine Burne said. Council is really good on this. They’re starting to stand up for residents, but their hands are tied. As soon as they reject something, it goes to appeal.

DCMs/The UN club are back in the Land and Environment Court appealing a decision by council to not continue a trial of 24-hour weekend trading.

Before the case was adjourned last year, Surry Hills police testified that video footage of last year’s shooting incident showed the club was violating its current conditions after 890 people were evacuated from the venue, despite it only having approval for 320.

The shooting itself cannot be considered a breach by the court because no charges were laid. Burne called the case extremely concerning and asked for local residents to report specific instances of breaches that can be counted, like noise, before the next hearing on 3 April.

The Burdekin has also appealed to the court after the council rejected a bid for all five floors to have DJs and trade 24-hours at weekends. A hearing was conducted at the hotel on Tuesday.

The Gaff’s application to expand into the adjacent shopfront was rejected earlier this month under council delegation. Burne expects it too will be appealed to the court.

All it would take would be a couple of judges to come out at two or three in the morning and blind Freddy could see that there’s a problem, she said. But nobody will come out outside working hours.

The thing that no-one can seem to take into account is the cumulative impact and the garbage that happens on the street. The argument is you can’t tie the problems directly to a premise. At the moment there isn’t a leg anyone can stand on.

Until the City of Sydney develops a measure of saturation that will stand up in court, HPCV are inviting residents to submit their personal impact statements for the court hearings via www.hpcvoice.com.
Burne said they’ve already received a number of statements in relation to DCMs.

You can get them on direct breaches, but you can’t get them on anything that happens because you’ve got 10,000 people coming into the street on a Saturday night, she said.

Have your say: Should DCMs, The Gaff and The Burdekin be allowed 24-hour weekend trade?