Council plan for lower Oxford Street

Businesses in lower Oxford Street say City of Sydney Council needs to do more to save their changing area.

Council has unveiled a plan to re-invent the area as ‘Oxford Street Cultural Quarter’, in response to a decline in the area’s day-time economy and the loss of its once-celebrated village atmosphere.

But Andrew Duckmanton, President of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership, said the plan in its current form is just a piece of paper.

“I don’t think you can call something a Cultural Quarter and it [just] becomes a cultural quarter … culture is something that you build from the ground up,” he said.

“They’re politically ticking boxes [but] not really working out what needs to happen.

“I would like to see some timelines … some understanding of where we are, the problems that creates, the strategies we have to enact to actually get through those problems and how this report is going to achieve them, with some KPIs and timelines, and with some definitive budgets put to it.”

He also criticised Council’s consultation process on the issue.

“[The plan] was supposed to go for a second round of community consultation … that was a commitment made with the Lord Mayor in the room, with the CEO … and with six councillors in the room,” he said.

“That commitment never happened, it went straight from report … and it was rushed into council, so the community got no chance to comment on what has been now signed off.”

He added that neglect from Council was what had led to market dynamics deciding the area’s fate in the first place.

“The market takes over on the simple basis of who is making money … [and] at the moment the day-time economy makes no money,” he said.

He said that traffic on lower Oxford Street, and particularly bus congestion was also a major problem.

“You try and sit on Oxford Street at eight o’ clock on any morning and have a nice Parisian experience … you can’t hear when they go past,” he said.

“The traffic is a major problem … it’s a really tough one for the Government to dance around, it’s not as simple as light rail, it’s almost got to be a big thought process, and until that occurs that street is going to be dead.”

Glenn Hansen, Promotions and Marketing Manager for the Stonewall Hotel, said that City of Sydney Council had a role to play as one of the area’s main property owners.

“Nobody actually wants to open a store here … because the rents are so high. I think it’s the council’s fault in a lot of ways because they own a lot of the shops and the rents are so high and they’re not getting the right sort of stores into the area,” he said.

Mr Hansen said a day-time economy needed to be encouraged.

“They’re not getting the right sort of restaurants in. You can only have so many 7-Elevens … you need some decent dining like in Newtown, and decent shops in order to have a day trade,” he said.

“Darlinghurst was never a fantastic looking place but at least it was friendly, there were things happening in the day-time, iconic stores … so it’s more about the character and I really do believe it’s a lot to do with the council and the planning of the street and the sort of stores that they’ve let in.”

He said the council needed to lower rents to make small business affordable.

“They should be dropping the rents and getting the shops open. There are so many vacant shops it’s quite embarrassing at Mardi-Gras time,” he said.

“I think the council have got to look at the fact that the area is an attraction, for Mardi-Gras … and for the gay community. I think they need to look at who is moving in and at least keep gay-friendly businesses, drop the rents and try to get decent restaurants and clothes shops into the area.”