Sugarmill cutbacks not so sweet

The new Sugarmill Hotel in Kings Cross has been prescribed a bitter pill by Council, which has decided the hotel’s outdoor drinking and dining area in Springfield Plaza must close at 9pm nightly. It had been closing at midnight under its trial approval, and Council staff had recommended changing to a 10pm close.

But Councillors heeded a series of complaints from residents and cracked down on the popular venue.

They decreed that the outdoor furniture and boundary planter boxes, now semi-permanent, were to be removed by 9.30pm, and they reduced number of tables allowed from 17 to 12.

Resident groups had campaigned for total removal of the outdoor area, claiming it reduced  amenity through alcohol-related problems such as noise and brawls.

One resident complained that the outdoor seating in the Plaza was as “noisy as a football crowd,” waking her at midnight, 3am and 5.30am, even though it closed at midnight.

A resident at Council’s City East Community Forum last week said the outdoor areas induced “drunken brawling and vomiting.”

However others who live in neighbouring Springfield Avenue supported the outdoor area. One resident, whose flat overlooks the Plaza, wrote:

“It has been well received and it is well patronised which has resulted in a significant decrease in antisocial behaviour in the Plaza – the homeless and junkies that used to congregate no longer have the privacy they had previously.

“We believe it would be a significant setback for the Cross if the extension of the Sugarmill outdoor license was not approved and Springfield Plaza returned to the arena for antisocial behaviour that it previously was.”

John Duncan, manager of the Sugarmill, said: “Since opening in December 2008 there has been no breach or infringement notice from Council, and no warning letters.”

“This decision is therefore disappointing, but we will just have to keep working and operating within the new guidelines,” he said.

Over $80,000 had been spent on purpose-built heavy-duty furniture and planter boxes to create a boundary, all to Council specifications.

Now, says Mr Duncan, he will have to hire workers and a truck to remove the furniture each night and reinstall it next morning, storing it offsite. He has been given a week to comply with the new rules.

Council received 22 objections to renewal of the outdoor seating and seven submissions in support. The hotel also gathered a petition of 757 signatures in support, 60 per cent of them from locals including several residents of Springfield Avenue. This was not sufficient to sway Councillors from their opposition.

Kings Cross Police had no concerns about the venue. Council documents report that “Police are of the opinion that footway seating discourages illegal activity due to active use. Police further advised that the Sugarmill Hotel is a well run venue, including the outdoor seating.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore will ask Danish Urban Design consultant Jan Gehl to come up with an activation plan for Springfield Plaza.

by Michael Gormly