Devonport lessons still ignored
The Save Our Seaside Village group today said that one law for an Australian corporate giant and another restrictive anti-competitive law for small retailers was ‘un-Australian’.
The Latrobe Council restriction, introduced on 24 April 2008, prohibits any new development above 250 square meters in the existing Shearwater town centre. “This is killing the ability of locals, including the baker, newsagent, chemist, butcher, bottle-shop and supermarket, to compete with Woolworths and other major retailers 700 metres away in a new town centre and shopping complex. The restriction is unfair, anti-competitive and un-Australian,” said SOSV spokesperson Guy Barnett today at a media conference with many other Shearwater retailers and community representatives.
“Our Shearwater town centre has been frozen in time by the Latrobe Council. It seems like there’s one rule for the locals and another for big business—frankly, it stinks,” said Paul Foster, owner-manager of the Tempt Bakery Café.
“Claims by Woolworths CEO Grant O’Brien, (anchor tenant of the proposed new town centre) that ‘the new development would not have an adverse effect on the existing CBD and retailers’ (The Advocate, 6 April 2013) are utterly ridiculous and without foundation. We have an independent Economic Impact Assessment which proves it will remove much of our turnover and take away our business. So with the Council prohibition on us competing, this is the last straw,” said Mr Foster.
“It beggars belief that the Council is giving the green light for development funded by big business but trampling on the rights of rate-paying locals to compete and grow their own businesses,” added Diana Dick, local hairdresser. “Where’s the justice in that?”
The continuing push to split the town’s heart by building a second town centre and refusing to release the plans shows contempt for the public.
What has the Latrobe Council learnt from Devonport where plans have only recently been released to finally consolidate its much maligned fragmented centre?
“We support development whole-heartedly,” said Nicholas Dodd, manager of the Shearwater Resort. “But surely, given what’s happened in Devonport, it makes sense to locate any new development in the existing town centre.
“The Chairman of Devonport’s Living City Taskforce has some explaining to do. How can he support consolidation in Devonport on the one hand and yet on the other be party to splitting Shearwater in two. Mr Fairbrother has some questions to answer.”
“We want development that will enhance our town and bring it together, not an out-dated proposal that will split our community in two,” Mr Dodd said.
“The Council prohibition on competition must be removed immediately,” concluded SOSV Spokesperson, Mr Barnett.
Guy Barnett
