THE Battery Point and Sullivans Cove Community Association has jobs on its hands. Thanks to its efforts, the St Ives Hotel and Club Surreal on Sandy Bay road has closed, with 59 people losing their jobs before Christmas and many young Tasmanians without a popular and safe place to enjoy themselves.
BPSCCA president David Edwards said on ABC Radio ‘Mornings’ program (12/12/05) that when another nightclub opened elsewhere, they or their equivalent, would find work. Good grief! That’s hardly likely to fill them with Christmas cheer.
The unrelenting campaign by Mr Edwards and senior vice president John White, and their diligent foot soldiers, a number of whom live close to the St Ives, has resulted in the shut down. The BPSCCA committee — Margot Giblin being a notable exception — has lobbied hard against the nightclub, just as they have spearheaded underground resistance to removing obstacles to public access to the Battery Point foreshore.
The BPSCCA committee has done much to protect the precinct from unbridled development in the past, of which it can be proud. But thanks to the efforts of office bearers in recent times, Battery Point is in danger of becoming a walled suburb for the middle class and middle aged, open to middle class and middle aged tourists, while the riff-raff is kept out.
Self interest cloaked as public interest
I was briefly junior vice president, resigning in February this year because I did not agree with the stance of the committee over the waterfront, which I thought was self-interest cloaked as public interest. Nothing wrong with self-interest, so long as it is declared. I saw a potential conflict of interest looming with my job as a journalist, hence my resignation. And I resigned as a member of the association (on this website) during the recent Hobart City Council election as an act of protest.
No-one wants to be disturbed by noise or unruly behaviour at night and my election platform, as published by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission, included a pledge to find a positive solution to the clash of interests between revellers and residents. If elected, I said I would examine the feasibility of providing a half hourly mini bus service for transport home from 11pm until closing time, to ensure the safety of those out late and to minimise noise or disturbance for people living near nightclubs or other late licence venues.
Mr Edwards was also a candidate and Mr White asked the committee to support his campaign with a $1000 donation, which was approved by majority decision.
Mr Edwards won 425 primary votes, I won 428 primary votes. When preferences were distributed, Mr Edwards had 829 votes, I had 1139 votes. Neither of us was elected, but another Battery Point resident, sitting alderman Peter Sexton, was returned. Dr Sexton, so far as I am aware, did not give oxygen to the parish pump, steering clear of the suburb’s issues of late night noise and foreshore access.
The result was telling. While the vote was across the Hobart electorate, Mr Edwards cannot claim to be the voice of Battery Point.
I suggest he gives his $1000 donation to those who have lost their jobs.
