DA Number D/2006/02252 - The Burdekin Hotel

What was the application for?

On 8 December 2006 the hotel submitted a development application D/2006/02252. Council’s notification described it as:

The application seeks approval use of the Dugout Bar (level 1) and Lava Lounge (level 5) as a Place of Public Entertainment (POPE) within the 'Burdekin Hotel'. The proposed hours are 8:00am to 2:00am the following day Monday to Thursday inclusive, and from 8:00am Friday continuous until 12:00 midnight Sunday. The application also seeks to consolidate existing approvals for Main bar, Mini bar and Viper bar into a single development approval and Section 68 approval for administrative purposes

What it really meant

In plain English, the hotel was seeking to operate as a Place of Public Entertainment (PoPE) with DJ entertainment on all five of its floors

• from 8am to the following 2am Monday to Thursday, and
• continuously from 8am Friday to 12 midnight Sunday

The following table presented by Council officers summarises the current and proposed hours of operation(as at November 2007)

In addition to  later closing times during the week, the hotel was seeking permission to have DJ entertainment on all 5 levels from 8am Friday through to midnight Sunday.

The hotel's current trading hours are:

What’s happened so far?

• The application came before Council’s Development Assessment Sub-Committee on 3 occasions – March, September and November 2007
• Throughout that period Council’s planning department continued to recommend approval of the application
• 43 separate letters of objection were submitted to Council, 7 members of the public spoke at the relevant council meetings, and over 100 people in the hotel’s immediate vicinity signed a petition objecting to any extension of approved hours for the Burdekin Hotel’s PoPE activities beyond those during which it currently trades
• Councillors unanimously refused the application at their meeting of 19th November 2007. They cited 4 main reasons as to why the application would not be in the public interest (you can read the decision here)
• The hotel lodged an appeal against that decision with the Land & Environment Court
• The case was heard on the 18th March and 20th March 2008 before Commissioner Murrell
• The court handed down its judgement on 25th July 2008 – and not only upheld the hotel’s appeal but also gave it a 3 year trial period

Residents’ objections

Objections primarily focused on:

• Noise and antisocial behaviour of patrons prior to entering and after leaving the hotel
• Noise and antisocial behaviour of smokers outside the hotel’s Liverpool Street exits
• Noise and bass vibrations audible in resident homes after midnight, in contravention of Council’s noise regulations
• The further decline of Oxford Street’s amenity and daytime economy if ‘day clubs’ proliferate further on weekends, and particularly at the gateway to Oxford Street. We have already seen the impact of the former T2 day club at Taylor Square, and are now subjected to the new one at The Exchange, just 3 doors up the road from the Burdekin, where the footpath is now routinely impassable during the day. (Photographs of the latter were submitted in court)
• The hotel already had approval for continuous 24x7 PoPe activities on weekends for 2 of its floors, but closes at 4am and 6am on Saturday and Sunday mornings respectively – so what’s behind needing 24x7 weekend PoPE consent for all 5 floors? Does it intend to avail itself of the approvals and destroy the community’s entire weekend and any chance of Oxford Street’s revival – or is it just a selfish grab to increase the property’s resale value.

The Court’s reasoning

You can read the full judgement here, and the conditions imposed by the court here.

In summary, the court:

• believes that any negative impacts will be avoided by the hotel’s adherence to its new Plan of Management and the conditions of consent laid down by the court
• accepted the evidence of acoustic experts that compliance can be achieved with the LAB noise criteria – but made no reference to Council’s stricter restrictions on noise after midnight
• continues to ignore the problems besetting Oxford Street, as evidenced by statements such as “The Burdekin Hotel is located in an entertainment precinct and clearly residents who purchase or rent in close proximity of the area should expect that the very nature of the precinct means that the character of the area is vibrant and diverse. The density of residential development and mix of uses, including late night entertainment, contributes to this vibrancy and vitality.”
• has twisted the evidence on what is already happening at The Exchange Hotel on weekend days to only allow the Burdekin to open from 11am Friday continuously to midnight Sunday, instead of the 8am Friday continuously to midnight Sunday as applied for – a reduction of a whole 3 hours on Friday morning!