Seminars to help push small bars
Two entrepreneurs who faced every bureaucratic hurdle while trying to open a small bar on Little Oxford St have been asked to spruik the experience for the City of Sydney.
Jack Brown and Cameron Reid successfully appealed a City decision that the entrance must instead face violence-prone Oxford St.
The builders are ready to go, but the owners still haven’t been given the final all-clear by the Liquor Administration Board despite having completed all the requirements and notification periods.
With no certainty and no opening date the pair can give their investors, the City of Sydney has invited them to talk at three seminars for prospective small-bar owners about the opportunity.
They sent me an invite and asked us to participate. I don’t really want to go down there on behalf of the council because its been an absolute rort really, Brown told Sydney Star Observer. I don’t think [council] deserve our help, but I’d go down to help other people.
Brown wasn’t accusing the City of wrongdoing, but the process fell short of expectations.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore acknowledged some teething problems and said the City had been inundated with enquiries.
The process though isn’t always easy and these new small bar seminars will provide advice, information and support to hopefully help people get started, she said.
The seminars will also include speakers from the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, which is responsible for the second part of the application process: the liquor licence.
Only two small-bar applications in the City’s local government area have made it through both processes. A further five were given the nod by the City but have been held up by the Liquor Board.
To combat this, a spokeswoman said the City has been in talks with the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing to streamline the number of forms, reports and community impact statements needed between the two authorities.
The City expects a further 10 small-bar applications will be made in the next month.
info: The small bar seminars will be held on 27 April, 28 July and 5 November, 6-8pm. Bookings are essential via [email protected].
Small bars -˜not the answer’
Small bars are simply more bars, according to Kings Cross heritage campaigner Andrew Woodhouse.
He wants councils to provide workshops and DA objectors’ kits to residents to counter the workshops the City of Sydney will run for prospective venue owners.
At first we thought this was an April Fools’ Day trick, but then we realised council is now using our ratepayers’ money to trash our own neighbourhoods -” the joke is on us, he said in a recent statement.
Small bars do not replace other pubs and clubs, they add to cumulative impacts.
He said a venue with a capacity of 120 could turn over patrols several times a night to create up an on-street milieu of up to 500 people.
I love my yearly trip to Melbourne and No theres no Gary Burns Clone down there.
If drunk and aggressive straights are really the problem (and they probably are) I’m all for having gay only bars and clubs, and gay only areas. Although it would be near impossible to enforce, it’s not a bad idea. By the way, I’m straight, but I don’t go to Oxford Street. I’ve been harrassed by enough junkies asking for money or cigarettes (I don’t smoke) to last me a lifetime. It’s a bit creepy at night. I’m all for small bars though.
Small Bars would be great, so long as it doesnt massively impact on residential areas. But then when you live in the City you should be prepared for the consequences of living so close to the action.
As for comments from WillSyd re: Palms. I couldnt agree more! The staff there are some of the most unfriendly in the country in fact in fact the worst I’ve experienced around the world and these are fellow friends of Dorothy. Perhaps with the opening of the Imperial in June Oxford Street might invest in some staff training and cleaning fluids and tolerance? We can all but hope for a better world!
Its the straight croud that IS the problem on oxford st – its where the violence all comes from. Close the ones that are next door to stonewall – leave one or two ones open (the ones near hungry jacks)
There – I solved the problem. Easy.
I would not have a problem with Council pushing for small bars if it meant the Development Applications for large venues and pub expansions were being knocked back but unfortunately this is not the case. Council is approving new DA’s for expansions of already massive venues and extended trading hours almost every week. The various retail shops on Oxford Street are gradually being eaten away and turned into extensions of existing (already large) licensed venues. Where is the diversity of retail and services? Does Council really want this for the city? It needs to stop
The City’s first small bar seminar to be held on Monday 27 April with guest speakers including architect Craig Allchin from Six Degrees who opened one of the first Melbourne laneway bars in the 80s, Luke Heard and Chris Lane from Small Bar on Erskine St in the Sydney CBD and speakers from City of Sydney and the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing.
The Council staff have invited more than 100 people to attend the free event who are known to have an interest in opening a small bar in Sydney. This includes Jack Brown and Cameron Reid who have an approved development application for a small bar at 133 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. Contrary to the article however, they have not been invited to present at the event.
The City of Sydney supports small bars and City planning controls are designed to make it easier for small premises to open while putting more onerous requirements on larger premises to prove ongoing responsible management practices. Smalls bars have a lower impact on the local amenity and are a way to help build a more civilised drinking culture and night time economy while providing more opportunities for the young musicians, artists and entrepreneurs to find a niche in our city.
Clr Phillip Black – City of Sydney
Lets face it the Melbourne folk are the small bar specialists.
And by jingo they also know how to make a good cup of coffee.
Maybe I might move interstate ?
Is there any room for a outspoken activist of my calibre in Melbourne ?
That is the burning question.
I can’t believe that the City of Sydney is using these two young men from Melbourne as guest speakers to encourage the expansion of bars in our city as if this was going to solve the growing problems of alcohol related violence and binge drinking.
The bar at 133 Oxford St was approved by staff but due to the impact it would have on the residents of Little Oxford and Ryder Sts, its entrance in these tiny residential backstreets was denied.
The planner, the Health unit, the police and the few residents who knew about it all opposed the laneway entrance but on appeal to the 3 members of the Small Permits Appeals Panel this decision was overturned.
I spoke out for the residents of this area because they are already suffering from the profusion of venues and bad behaviour in Oxford and Crown Sts but noone seems to care about residents standards of living anymore.
For Council to invite these two people as models of small bar proprietorship is yet another kick in the face for local residents.
This is ideology gone mad.
The belief that small bars are the answer to all the nightlife problems of the inner city is a farce with no evidence to prove it will do anything other than add more drinking venues to a city that is already awash with alcohol.
The Lord Mayor has said that Council has been inundated with enquiries and expects 10 more applications this month but you have to ask who will listen to the residents who will have to live with these venues.
I’m not a wowser and did not oppose this bar per se but to see the City of Sydney treating these entrepreneurs like heroes is a really sad example of how confused our approach to alcohol related problems really is.
It also makes a mockery of the advice of all the staff and police who put conditions on the laneway entrance to this bar.
Small bars alone do not make a sophisticated city unless you do something about the drunken violence and ever expanding venues that are making the inner city unliveable for its residents.
The applicants talk about the rorts of Council but I would say the rorts are all going the barkeeps way with a nice grant to help you along and special seminars to guide one through the process.
Am I the only person that thinks this is way out of balance?
Cool bring on the small bars, but reduce the large bars by the equivalent size! Random town planning is CRAZY!
The bar in question had an entrance in a dodgy lane behind Oxford Street where residences voiced their opposition to more people in the back lane way!
Introducing more bars without solving the hideous problem Council & NSW Govt have created in Cross & Darlinghurst is unacceptable.
On a side note look forward to Imperial opening, I tend to avoid Oxford Street now!
Maybe Palms barmen will be a bit nicer to clients after the numbers reduce considerably?
William Power
http://twitter.com/willsyd