Alternative Media Group

Council wants more power to curb drinking

Author:

Michael Gormly

Posted:

Thursday, 11 March 2010

City of Sydney Councillors want more powers written into law so they can “civilise” the city’s late-night entertainment precincts, creating a “sophisticated culture” in the words of Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

On Monday Councillors faced four community members who each had three minutes to speak on Council’s late-night trading research. [I was the first speaker, summarising points made in comment 'Late night trading debate now in black and white'.]

The next three residents called for Council to further restrict alcohol trading. Jo Holder (Darlinghurst Residents Action Group) said residents had suffered “a remarkable deterioration of quality of life affecting the densest residential area in Sydney”. At one point there had been only one all-night venue, now there were 30, creating unacceptable street noise as patrons migrated between Kings Cross and Oxford Street late at night on weekends.

Carole Ferrier (2011 Residents’ Association) was disappointed with Council’s response to public comment on the research. There IS over-saturation, she said, and the streets were out of control with “masses of people milling about after 1am” in Kings Cross Road. She cited a recent photograph in The Sunday Telegraph showing a blood-splattered take-away shop after a man had been slashed in the neck with a broken bottle.

Dimity Talbot said she lived in the Wintergarden units, located “at ground zero in Darlinghurst Road” in the Cross. She complained about over-saturation of venues, crowds streaming through the streets and “souped-up cars with stereo systems thumping,” a problem that late-night road closures in Woolloomooloo had not really solved. She called for more Council rangers on weekend nights, “concentrated in our area and concentrating on our complaints.”

Councillors reassured the speakers that they were serious about solving their problem but said their powers were limited – they didn’t write the liquor licensing laws and the courts had overruled some of Council’s attempts to refuse venues.

Several called for changes to law giving Council more power. Clover Moore promised more research to “provide solid evidence” that things were out of control. She said Council was up against big vested interests, a pointed comment with representatives of liquor accords and the AHA watching from the gallery.

Chris Harris (Greens) called for research to establish an objective measure of over-saturation. He wanted the city mapped showing the concentration of drinkers. “If we can show that one area has, say 1,000 drinkers per metre and the rest of the world has only 50, we can declare that this area is over-saturated,” he said, cautioning that this was a crude summary of the concept. “Then we can say that Kings Cross and Oxford Street are atypical and we won’t be approving any more DAs until that density evens out.”

Cr Harris said Responsible Service of Alcohol laws were a joke and called for “a whole bunch of enforcement people checking that RSA was enforced, especially in troublesome venues.”

by Michael Gormly

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