Clubland rains emails on councillors

A group of Sydney nightclubs has launched a second email campaign aimed at councillors and opposing moves to lock down late-night venues.

An email has been networked through industry contact lists inviting people to visit a website where they can fill out a form and preview a standard email message before sending.

The email was sent by Home Nightclub in Darling Harbour, although it is understood to be on behalf of several big clubs in the city.

A previous campaign flooded councillors’ mailboxes with up to 2,000 emails per day, but achieved little with councillors dismissing them as spam.

The email and the website, nannastate.com.au, features an artist’s version of Sydney with the Centrepoint Tower engulfed by twisted tree roots and encircled by bats. Near it is Clover Moore dressed as a witch.

The text describes measures in Council’s late-night trading Development Control Plan, focusing on new “reviewable conditions” which give Council the power to close venues at midnight or later, for unspecified reasons, regardless of existing trial periods.

Despite Council claiming this gives venues “certainty”, the clubs website says it achieves the opposite: “In time, you’ll see a lot less venues as they become less and less viable – not knowing from week to week if they can stay open.”

by Michael Gormly