A new proposal set to protect Sydney’s iconic venue Enmore Theatre from noise complaints is certainly something for live music goers to raise their glasses too.
The new laws are intended to promote live music venues – like the Enmore – and will make it harder for venues to be shut down due to noise complaints.
The new proposal that will be considered will designate Enmore Theatre as part of a special entertainment precinct. If an entertainment precinct is identified, the noise complaints will be dealt with by the council, which removes the right for complainants to be pursued through the liquor regulator, the Land and Environment Court and licensing police.
QLD has been operating with special entertainment precincts since 2006 and the change was championed by John Wardle of the Live Music Office.
If passed, the new proposal will mean that, along with less strict rules surrounding the level of noise allowed, the Enmore will receive an 80 percent cut in liquor licensing fees and a half-hour daily extension to trading hours.
“It’s a milestone moment because these changes set new and consistent ground rules for arts and cultural land use in the night economy,” said Wardle.
“Seven separate agencies in NSW regulated noise – with three or four main ones – and that was a concern for venues. Having a lack of certainty and overlapping functions and processes really created an environment that undermined investor confidence.”
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The inner west mayor Darcy Byrne, is backing the changes and is keen to extend the new rules for venues along the main streets of Newtown, Marrickville and Leichhardt. He’s also open to including venues along Marrickville Road between Illawarra Road and Sydenham Station, and the Bridge Hotel in Rozelle.
“In Sydney, the cliche of a person moving in next door to a long-standing pub and complaining about noise has been a reality for many years. Worse still, many operators go broke because noise complaints are prosecuted by more than half a dozen government agencies. This tacit fun police force has been strangling the live music sector,” Byrne told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Enmore Theatre is located in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Newtown and has hosted countless local and international acts including London Grammar, KISS, TLC and The Rolling Stones.
For more on this topic, follow the Live Music Observer.
Watch Chet Faker perform live at The Enmore Theatre:
