Apologies - Henry St and Gipps Street Intersection Works Oct-Nov 2016

Post date: Oct 29, 2016 1:7:49 AM

All stakeholders please take note, we became aware on Friday 28 October of road works at the above intersection. This intersection abuts our property. Works are to commence this Monday, 31 October.

Correspondence from the City of Yarra advises;

TIME FRAME

Works are programmed to commence on Monday 31 October and will be staged over a period of two weeks (weather dependent).

ACCESS

While the works are being undertaken, traffic management will be in place. The entrance to Henry Street till be closed during these works. Access to Henry Street will be via Langridge Street for this time, meaning Henry Street will temporarily become two-way.

We apologize for any inconvenience. There was no consultation with us on these works. We received a letter on Tuesday 25 Oct 2016 advising the works but only read it in detail on Friday, after finding a works notice that our water was going to be cut off and workmen moving the fire hydrant beside our property. We immediately visited Council who gave us some verbal detail on works and, during yesterday afternoon (Friday 28 Oct ) I was supplied more information via phone and email. We are yet to be able to return to the Centre with the plans to properly examine the changes.

Our abutting neighbour had also not been contacted and not been consulted. These works will significantly impact our both of our short term commercial activities and our internal use of the hall; with the potential for long term impact. A council officer had visited the tenants of hotel opposite in July 2016, but made no contact with us as owners of our property nor our abutting owner. It is clear there is no failure of managing rental agent as the two organizations are owner occupiers and Council's officers responsible for consultation and communication have failed abysmally.

We are advised that disruption will be minimal. However we are extremely concerned about short and long term effects to the hall's income and to its amenity. Completed works have the potential to effect our ongoing use and also our ability to maintain our property, so say nothing of the users over the next 14 days who are yet to be notified, with one exception who was present when works were being done on Friday. Noise levels at that time make the hall unusable, but the contractor, Aussie Civil Contractors, assure us that noise during construction will be minimal with three days of occasional digging and only around 15 minutes of concrete sawing. With a user in the hall booked for the exact period the works are to occur, this creates reputation and financial risk in the coming weeks, and the works long term risk to our ability to access the hall as we have done for 80 years. Should the completed works adversely impact on our external income, they will reduce the viability of the hall itself.

It is currently our intent to lodge a written complaint with the City of Yarra.

Should you have any questions in relation to this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Damien

Hall Manager

Plans supplied by the City of Yarra yesterday;