The illegal development of the Fingal General Store into a commercial bakery was ended on Tuesday when Cubby’s development application (DA) was modified to remove the commercial bakery.
The significant changes removed the application for a commercial bakery at the site and asked for a general store operating 7am to 7pm and a restaurant that would operate until 10pm seven-days a week.
While it was clear from councillor comments that the Fingal community were in support of the reopening of the Fingal General Store there was clear division on whether the community supported the 10pm opening hours seven days a week. Local residents fought against the extended opening hours for the restaurant and councillors Nola Firth (Greens) and Deputy Mayor Meredith Dennis (Independent) proposed limiting the hours to 7am – 7pm. This however, was voted down by Liberal councillors James Owen and Rhiannon Brinsmead along with conservative Cr Warren Polglse and Labor Cr Reece Byrnes.
‘The site of the Fingal Store is zoned as a residential block of land amongst residential housing,’ explained local resident Vilia Hendry, ‘and it now can be open 7 nights a week for a restaurant till 10pm.
‘The community that met with Cr Reece Byrnes and we felt that he understood our situation and the effect the 10pm would have on nearby neighbours. We were disappointed to see him not even acknowledge us at the meeting, let alone support us with the motions to change the hours to 7pm.’
No live music
Cr Firth proposed a motion to ban amplified live music at the venue which Cr Owen argued vehemently against. Yet by consultation with staff it became apparent that no love music, let alone amplified live music, is allowed at the venue.
Staff clarified that one of the conditions (condition 73) on the consent is that it must ‘comply with that noise level impact assessment’ and that the acoustic report did not ‘anticipate live music… so therefore it’s not permitted by virtual condition 73’.
Mayor Chris Cherry (Independent) argued that clarifying the type of music allowed at the venue would be clearer for future developers of the site but once again Crs Owen, Brinsmead, Polglase and Byrnes voted the amendment down.
This means that the restaurant ‘can’t have live music inside or outside,’ explained Ms Hendry. ‘There is no outside seating for anything, even the takeaway cafe.’
The motion that the door leading to the carpark be fitted with a ‘soft close device to prevent noise nuisance’ put up by Crs Firth and Dennis was finally accepted by Owens after he spent significant time talking about fire doors, even though the staff clarified that fire doors could not have soft close devices otherwise they wouldn’t work as fire doors.
General store and restaurant approved
The final vote to approve the general store and restaurant with restaurant hours til 10pm seven days a week was finally approved by Crs Owen, Brinsmead, Polglase, Byrnes and Cherry with Crs Firth and Meredith voting against.
‘It was a great fight to get there,’ Ms Hendry told The Echo.
‘We are so proud of Mayor, Noala and Merideth for trying to support our community. Some of the Tweed councillors seem willing to break the laws of development in favour of the developers – so why can’t you support the community and their needs over developers?’
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