Public gets behind Geelong pub’s fight to save its beer garden

The public has got behind a historic Geelong pub’s battle to keep its beer garden open after the council ordered it closed following noise complaints from nearby residents of a new apartment complex.

The City of Greater Geelong has lodged an enforcement order application to force The Deck to close its beer ­garden, despite it being there some two decades before the apartment complex was built.

But Pub owner George Zurcas has said that the public has thrown its support behind the venue, telling the Geelong Advertiser that the “reaction we’ve got has been enormous”.

“There’s been thousands of comments on various Facebook pages, and almost all of them are backing the pub ... most are just saying the pub was there first, the council’s got no right,” he told the Advertiser.

A poll on Facebook set up by A Current Affair asking “Should people who move next to existing businesses be able to complain about noise?” saw a massive response in favour of venues. Of the 11,800 response, 92 per cent threw their support behind existing businesses.

The council has lodged an ­enforcement order application with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to close the beer garden, with a two-day VCAT hearing scheduled for the last week of November.

But Zurcas has warned that the public are the ones who will tasked with funding an expensive court battle.

 “They’re using a big law firm, the Geelong council, and it’s the ratepayers who are paying,” Zurcas told the Advertiser.

Sheridan Randall, 28^th October 2019