NewQuay liquor licence row
By Alison Kinkade
NewQuay residents are up in arms after a liquor licence application was lodged for a new bar at 29 St Mangos Lane.
An application for a general licence was lodged in late November by Sallypen Pty Ltd for a 70sqm bar.
The proposed bar, to be named Uber Bar & Lounge, is situated between NewQuay’s Palladio and Arkley apartment buildings.
Resident and chair of the Arkley Owners’ Corporation, Roger Gardner, described the proposed venue as a “serious threat to the resident amenity”.
“This proposed bar would create noise in a quiet residential haven in an otherwise busy precinct. Its doors would inevitably be open with patrons spilling out onto the footpath. There is no way it would attract a mainly quiet sophisticated crowd,” Mr Gardner said.
Palladio Owners Corporation chair Paul O'Halloran said he would respond officially once he had discussed it with his committee early in February.
Sallypen Pty Ltd 's Chris Ellis, a former resident of the Palladio, has applied for the bar to open from 10-1am, Monday-Saturday and 10-11pm on Sunday.
St Mangos Lane residents Nick Varley and Cindy Goudie describe the application as “ridiculous”.
“The bar should be placed in a retail area, or near The Woolshed, not near residents!” Ms Goudie said.
Mr Ellis, who also owns a natural therapies business in Docklands, said he had offered to speak to objectors, but they were not interested.
“People are more than welcome to make objections. That’s what it’s there for and then we’ll go to the hearing,” he said.
Melbourne City Council and the Victoria Police have also lodged objections to the venue.
A council spokesperson said: “The City of Melbourne has objected at this stage as inadequate information regarding the liquor licence has been provided by the applicant.”
Mr Ellis said the objection from the council was almost resolved.
“They just needed more documentation and once we acquire it and hand over the information to them then it should be resolved, so long as it meets all their requirements,” he said.
Senior Constable Adam West, from Police Media, said: “ Police objected to the application on the grounds that they believed it would be detrimental to the amenity of the area.”
But Mr Ellis said: “Police objected basically because it is their policy to object to every application made in the CBD and Docklands at the moment.”
It is currently unknown how many patrons the bar would cater for, but Mr Ellis said, given the size of the venue, it would not be many.
A spokesperson for the Director of Liquor Licensing said a panel hearing would be held into the application but a date had not yet been set.
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