The City Of Sydney has hit back at accusations made by Labor Councillor Linda Scott that the axing of live music from renowned Sydney pub, Harold Park Hotel, could have been prevented if the City had prioritised its live music plan, established in 2014.
Scott has claimed that the incident with the Forest Lodge establishment is just another example of how the City has failed to act, however, speaking exclusively to The Music, Councillor Jess Scully says Scott is “simplifying this issue”.
“Either she is being disingenuous about the extent to which live music is a focus for Labor and for her or she really doesn’t know what we’re doing as a city,” Scully said.
“It’s completely false that we haven’t acted on the Live Music and Performance Action Plan. What’s happened in this instance is [Harold Park Hotel owner William Ryan] hasn’t applied for approval to run live music in the courtyard… and he acknowledges he didn’t apply.”
The Council confirmed earlier this week that they will work with Ryan and the venue to find a resolution, after it was found that their license had been breached by showcasing live music in the outside courtyard.
“No doubt [Ryan] is busy and it’s really expensive to run a business and no one is pointing any fingers ,but the thing is the reason City staff had to step in, even though they haven’t issued the fine as they should, they’ve got a little bit of discretion around issuing that fine.
“They’ve said, ‘Obviously having one complaint in such a long period of operation means that... we want to help you make this work, we’re not going to issue the fine and we’re going to point the people at the City who can help you’.
“It would be chaos if people just went ahead and did anything they want without the right development consent, whether we agree with live music in a courtyard or not. They have to apply and have to go through the process and it has to be an impartial and fair decision.”
Scully further rejects claims by Scott that the Live Music and Performance Action Plan is not being implemented, saying there are projects have been and are still in motion “right now”.
“For example, we’re trying to encourage all-age live events in the city and we’ve got a grants program that we’re running with Music NSW to help with fund people with all-age live gigs,” Scully says.
“Late last year I spoke at and was part of a workshop in which the city brought [Amsterdam night mayor] Mirik Milan to Sydney to speak with venue owners, with promoters, with lots of people who are involved with Sydney’s nightlife and live music scene to help the sector itself actually organize and find a way to get through the really tough regulatory environment we’ve all been faced with like lockouts…
“We’ve been very, very vocal campaigners and we’ve been making big passionate submissions in rolling back the lockout laws and supporting nightlife in Sydney.
“The idea that Clover Moore and the independent team don’t support live music is false, it’s misleading and it’s actually a total distraction from the real issue at hand which is how can we help more venues safely, legally and sensitively run live music."
Scott told The Music that she plans to push the City on the topic again this year, but Scully alleges that Labor have no grounds to challenge them on.
“The idea that the Live Music and Performance Action Plan was actually sparked by her is false. The idea that we are not prioritizing and acting on this plan is false.
“I welcome her support and I’m really glad that now the Labor party does support live music, because in the past the Labor party has been all to ready to fall into line behind the Liberal and National parties in supporting things like lockout laws and, at a local government level, not supporting venue operators and nightlife."
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