Council and residents’ mission to make pubs more accountable

BY JOSH TAYLOR
Licensed venues may soon be forced to post their Public Management Plans online if independent councillor Di Tornai gets her way.
Cr Tornai told The City News that by making the plans available “venues may be encouraged to fully implement and adhere to their plans if they were aware they were publicly available”.
One pub that is acutely aware of the increased level of scrutiny is the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills. The once legendary after-party venue lost an appeal in the New South Wales Land & Environment Court to have its trading hours extended, after 170 residents from Mary’s Place, Bourke Street and the St Margaret’s complex objected to the appeal on the grounds that extended trading hours would lead to increased noise and drunkenness in the area.
Despite being a stone’s throw from the revelry on Oxford and Flinders Streets, the court sided with the residents in the newly gentrified suburb, and the appeal was rejected.
The Beresford has finally reopened after a long redevelopment and the hotel now features a large outdoor courtyard. The venue operators had hoped to extend its trading hours to 3am and to have the courtyard open for dining until midnight instead of its current 11pm curfew.
On the court’s decision, Brian Noad from the Nichols Street Community Group, said: “It’s a big win for residents, we are delighted with the outcome.”
Mr Noad added: “Residents remember all too well the ‘bad’ Beresford days and having to repeatedly call police to intervene in violence inside and outside the pub,” Mr Noad said.
But the hotel’s spokesman David Wasserman rejected these claims, saying the new hotel is nothing like the Beresford of old.
“The pub has been around for 100 years in many different incarnations and the previous incarnations are not relevant to today. It’s a dining destination,” Mr Wasserman said.
“The Beresford is a friendly venue that adds to the Surry Hills and Darlinghurst landscape,” He said. “Since the Beresford Hotel has provided this as a food and beverage destination on the global scale, it actually lifts the value of the residents’ properties because people are investing in the local area.”
Mr Wasserman said that when the hotel closes at 1am, the staff quietly usher patrons away from the area.
“Security and the safety of our patrons is first and foremost,” he said. “The management have taken great measure to make sure that consideration for our neighbours is paramount when people are entering or leaving the hotel.”
In arguing for an extension to a 3am closing time, the Beresford said all hotel staff would remain on duty when the ground floor closes at 1am and that two police officers will be on contract from NSW Police from midnight to 3am.
However in the ruling, Judge Hoffman said the police could not prevent loud farewells or car doors slamming, both of which the court ruled, would disturb residents.
The Beresford Hotel is not ruling out further appeals and Judge Hoffman said that if the hotel could demonstrate that noise levels could be kept at acceptable levels, then a future appeal might be upheld.
From a resident’s perspective, Brian Noad approves of councillor Tornai’s proposal. “It’s a fantastic idea,” he said.
“Venue plans of management provide standards and procedures of their operations, it would assist residents to set realistic expectations.”