This comes after the owner of popular cafe The Local called on customers to join a stand-in to prevent council contractors in removing the alfresco dining space last week.
The Local owner, Ben McLauchlan, said the local council has been trying to remove the outdoor dining area since 2022 and claims the city “unlawfully cancelled our permit, fined us for a permitted structure, and failed to move forward with the court process.”
Executive Director City Infrastructure James Stirton said it has been “very disappointing to see inaccurate information being spread about The Local, so it’s important to provide an update and set the record straight”.
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“We have been working with the owner of The Local for over two years to ensure the outdoor seating in Garden Street complies with strict safety rules,” he said.
“The permit for The Local’s outdoor dining space expired on 31 December last year and unfortunately the City has not yet received the documentation and plans to show how the area will comply with the safety rules that will allow us to issue a permit.
“We have received some documentation from The Local, but this is not anywhere near the required standard.
“Standards are rigorous for a reason – as part of the extensive reviews conducted by the City, independent experts were consulted and they determined this area to be high risk due to its position close to the intersection.
“Only last Friday, a vehicle lost control and mounted the kerb on Boundary Road in Thomson. At least one vehicle has been known to have hit the parklet located at The Local Café on Garden Street.
“We can’t sit by and wait until something terrible happens, we need to take action now.”
Mr Stirton said as the site does not currently have a permit to operate and was constructed in a temporary way, it will need to be removed – either by the operator, or the City.
“The permit for the site was meant to expire in 2023, but an unfortunate technical error by us meant that the permit was granted for another year. We used this time to spend the last year working with The Local to get the parklet up to a satisfactory standard, but no improvements have been made in this time, despite The Local telling us on multiple occasions that engineers had been engaged,” he continued.
“We’re happy to support The Local in applying for a new permit for a construction that does meet the required safety standards, but either way, the current construction was only designed to be temporary during COVID – it’s been around way longer than expected.
“The operator of The Local has claimed that they had limited prior warning of our requests for the parklet to be removed, but that’s simply not accurate. We’ve been working with them for well over a year on this, and when their permit expired at the end of December, we informed them that they had 21 days to remove the unpermitted site, or we would be required to do so.
“They claim that we haven’t supported them, but The Local has had numerous meetings with officers and councillors over the past two years, consuming significant time and ratepayer resources.
“It is regrettable that the situation has reached this point, but we are committed to public safety and we will not compromise.”
Mr McLauchlan attended the council meeting this week on Tuesday and, posting to Instagram, wrote “Last night, we attended the Council meeting to get some questions on the record. Unfortunately, the response last night was to refer back to our emails.”
Read more about the ongoing issue here.
