Anything But Lovers

One resident has lived on Stokes Street, a few doors down from the Lovers Cafe/Restaurant, since the 1990s.

As you’ll see from this map, Stokes St is a short, narrow street, and generally not a thoroughfare. Until recently, by all accounts, it was a quiet little street.

All that changed, nearby residents report, on 8 December last year, when the ‘Lovers Deli and Canteen’ Cafe/Restaurant opened for business.

Lovers, 228 South Street, WGV, at corner Stokes Street

Immediately, the residents say, they experienced parking congestion and blockages as Lovers’ patrons began parking during opening hours wherever they could and in the process parked in private Stokes Street driveways, on the street blocking driveways, on the footpath, on both sides of a narrow street for the full length of the street and overflowing into surrounding streets, as well as parking on residents’ verges and within the residents’ verge parking bays.

Some of these photographs give you a good idea of Stokes Street and its neighbourhood amenity and how it might be easily overrun with parked cars visiting nearby businesses.

Some of the residents, we are told, approached Lovers staff with their complaints. However, residents felt their concerns were met with indifference. One resident reports that a Lovers staff member told them, after they had approached Lovers with their complaint for the third time that day, that they should ‘put witches hats out’.

Then residents took up their parking issues with City of Freo. They were informed they could call the parking inspector and he would attend and issue infringement notices. But as one resident told us, this is not particularly helpful when you are blocked from entering your own property – the infringement notice doesn’t magically remove the offending vehicle.

When a resident took to placing a ‘No Parking’ sign up on the street they quickly received a letter from a City Parking Officer advising that wasn’t an option open to them, and requiring them to remove the sign.

The residents concerns go wider than parking, however. They say their dealings with the City have raised questions of process for them: whether Lovers had actually obtained all relevant approvals from the City before opening their doors in December. They say this current planning application for retrospective approval raises a can of questions.

They also ask how Lovers can be allowed to continue to trade without a planning approval.

The residents are pleased that at least the current planning application for retrospective approval has triggered the need for the application to be advertised, giving the residents a chance to make submissions outlining their concerns. Advertising is mandatory under the City’s planning scheme as the operation of a cafe/restaurant at 228 South Street is a non-permitted use in this location, which is zoned ‘Neighbourhood Centre’. Council it seems has a discretion to allow it, but it can also impose proper conditions that take into account parking needs on the Lovers site and the need to protect the Stokes Street neighbourhood amenity.

Right now, ‘Not happy, Jan’, sums up the mood of the affected residents. They are fed up and believe that had they not kicked up a fuss about the impact Lovers was/is having on their residential amenity, the City of Freo would not have responded to their concerns.

Next steps? Well, the current planning application must now come before the Council. It’ll be interesting to read the planning officer’s report to Council in due course and how they account for/explain the apparent failure of process that allowed an unapproved use to commence.

It will also be interesting to see how the Council deals with the obvious amenity problems a business like Lovers might cause, if approved or if approved without appropriate conditions, at 228 South Street.

Watch this space.

* By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping Mews

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