Trivial pursuit
BY ROJE ADAIMY
A popular Glebe watering hole has been forced to cancel its weekly trivia night because current state legislation demands that it be approved by local council – something that even the City of Sydney doesn’t agree with.
The Toxteth Hotel, which for the last two years hasn’t had a Place of Public Entertainment (PoPE) licence, was told it cannot hold a trivia event unless it seeks further approval.
According to a Council spokesperson, a condition of the development consent issued to the hotel on August 7 in 2006 required the premises to lodge a separate application for a PoPE approval, but this was never done.
Toxteth’s venue manager, Justin Carroll, told The City News that hotel did not follow through with an application at the time because the Council imposed a number of unrelated conditions – including no fresh food deliveries on the weekend and restrictions on where alcohol could be served.
“It was 40-odd conditions that they [Council] put on there, but only about five of those clauses had to do with entertainment and keeping the neighbourhood in a good and orderly manner,” Mr Carroll said. “The rest were just absurd and at an expense to us of hundreds of thousands of dollars [because] of work that they wanted us to do, so we could never agree to it.”
Mr Carroll said that because they didn’t have a PoPE licence, the hotel didn’t have any live music or any other form of noisy entertainment. But when he decided to introduce a trivia night three months ago, he found it ridiculous that they needed approval and that a single complaint would lead to its cancellation.
“We got 80 to 90 people attending every Tuesday, but it’s so quiet, you can’t hear it from the street,” he said. “And unfortunately, it only takes one or two residents to complain to shut us down.”
The City argues that all hotels wishing to have entertainment – whether it be as small as a trivia night or bands and DJs – they are required to lodge a development application under the current provisions of the State Environmental Planning Policy (temporary Structures and Places of Public Entertainment) 2007.
While they say that this process ensures the City can put in place practices to reduce negative impacts on the local community, they’ve been lobbying the State Government to change existing laws.
“A City of Sydney submission on the State Government’s 2008 Environmental Planning and Assessment Bill recommended that some forms of entertainment like trivia nights, raffles and comedy acts may be exempt from legislation requiring a place of public entertainment approval,” a spokesperson said.
Late amendments to the new Liquor Act 2007 are expected to be passed by the NSW Parliament this month, which aim to exempt many restaurants, cafes, hotels and small clubs from the expensive and complex application process needed to stage small scale live entertainment.
Artists and entertainers alike are showing their support for the removal of current PoPE laws, setting up an online campaign called ‘Cut the Red Tape’ on www.raisethebar.org.au.
Meanwhile, Mr Carroll said the Toxteth is back to square one, having to lodge another PoPE application.
“Unfortunately for the next 3 to 6 months or however long it takes, the only people that are really going to suffer are those that support the hotel – the locals,” he said.
