Sydney pub manager describes lock-out laws as ‘heartbreaking’
A pub manager in Sydney has slammed the city’s lockout laws two years after he was forced to close a live music venue.
Nik Hoar was forced to shutdown Mr Falcon's in 2017 after what he describes as exaggerated noise complaints and being hit with thousands of dollars of council fines.
Hoar says the lock-out laws and over the top bureaucracy were behind the decision to close its doors.
'It's heartbreaking. I put six years of my life into it,' he told news.com.au
Hoar said one neighbour in particular made spurious complaints over the noise.
“She complained about an acoustic guitarist but she lived 104 metres away. The acoustic guitarist must have been blisteringly loud,” he said.
“(City of Sydney) council were up my butt the whole time. My profile was raised by her so they kept finding problems.
“I was fined $6000 for not having my CCTV up to scratch because there was a spider’s web on them and I was like ‘dude, we spray them and they come back, they’re spiders’.”
In a statement issued to Daily Mail Australia the City of Sydney said it supports “live music and performances”.
'The closure of Mr Falcon's was a decision of the property owner,' the statement read.
“The City of Sydney previously contacted the premise about instances of trading outside of approved hours, but did not take any enforcement action and did not ask the property owner to close the premise or cease staging entertainment.
“The City supports live music and performances and wherever possible we work collaboratively with venues to resolve issues.”
Hoar has since opened a new venue named Staves Brewery, which he says has not received any noise complaints.
Sheridan Randall, 22nd March 2019
