A large group of residents made the most of the opportunity to have their say about concerts held at the Sandstone Point Hotel at a recent community meeting. The hotel hosted the meeting on October 4 in regard to their liquor licence and the area it covers.
Ahead of the meeting Sandstone Point Hotel Director Rob Comiskey explained briefly what the meeting would be about.
“We have called a meeting today to chat with local residents and gather their feedback regarding our application to reduce our liquor licence area,” Mr Comiskey said. “As part of the changes to our liquor licence, we thought it would be a good opportunity to seek feedback from the community, whether positive or negative, about our concerts at Sandstone Point Hotel.
“We will use these insights to see how we can improve our ongoing operation, minimising any impact on our surrounding neighbours. We look forward to engaging with residents later this afternoon.”
The Pumicestone Area Noise Abatement Group Inc. also known as PANAG have been vocal about the noise from concerts at the hotel since the beginning. PANAG chairman Ken Park was one of about 70 residents who was able to make it along to the meeting at such short notice.
Mr Park explained that large, loud rock concerts had only been permitted at the hotel because the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) had, for the duration of each concert, removed the stage from the hotel’s liquor licence.
“The liquor licence exists to protect patrons, staff, neighbours and the public,” Mr Park said. “Among the many conditions in the licence is the allowable noise regulation, so, if the stage is unlicenced there is no regulation by OLGR of the noise or other activities that occur on the stage. This situation has been in place for some years against the objections of the council and PANAG.”
Rather than seeking one-off temporary removal of the stage for each major rock concert, the hotel now wants it to be made permanent. However, this time the public are invited to have their say on the matter before OLGR makes its decision.
“We are not anti the hotel at all – they put on so many fun family activities which we love,” Mr Park said following the meeting. “It is just not a suitable place for rock concerts. The local residents were all living here well before the hotel was built; they came here to retire, to enjoy a peaceful life.
“Many have to leave town when the big concerts are on. Windows rattle, you cannot converse, you can’t hear the television. We are definitely not wowsers, we encourage the hotel and OLGR to make arrangements so that all activities at the hotel comply with the hotel’s commercial liquor licence and with the liquor act. These requirements apply to every other licenced premises in Queensland, so it is not too much to ask.”
“We, the local residents, need to take full advantage of this rare opportunity to make our opinions known,” PANAG secretary Ken Simper added. “All are encouraged to make submissions to OLGR.”
For anyone who needs further history or information on this issue or guidelines for making submissions to OLGR, please contact Ken Simper on 0408421666 or email secretary.panag@gmail.com.
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