By Cara Waters
The owners of a bar in Melbourne’s inner-north say they are exhausted after defending their venue from hundreds of “petty” complaints from neighbours, but that they’re “not going down quietly”.
“For the past four years, we’ve been relentlessly targeted by a small group of nearby residents,” the owners of Moonee Ponds restaurant and bar Holmes Hall said in a post on social media.
Holmes Hall co-owner David Bartl says the pub has been the subject of hundreds of complaints.Credit: Chris Hopkins
David Bartl, Jacob Bettio and Lachlan Taylor said their bar has been subjected to hundreds of complaints, including more than 30 freedom of information requests, multiple appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and attempts to revoke their planning permit entirely.
“We’re a local venue doing everything right,” they said in a post on Instagram. “And we’re exhausted.”
The owners said the complaints were part of a broader issue affecting small, community-minded venues across Melbourne.
“Good operators are being dragged through endless red tape and legal attacks by individuals trying to shut them down – not because they’ve done something wrong, but because they simply exist,” they said.
The Age has been provided with copies of some of the complaints made to Moonee Valley City Council. They include accusations of deliveries not being conducted in prescribed loading zones, waste collections occurring on public holidays, patrons using an incorrect door as an exit, alcohol being consumed outside permitted areas, music exceeding permitted volumes, seating not being in accordance with permits, illegal parking by patrons, pressure-washing equipment causing waste water to enter stormwater assets and signs for “Drag Bingo” and “Tipsy Trivia” on walls in contravention of the pub’s planning permit.
Former footballer and coach Danielle Laidley is a regular at Holmes Hall and lives nearby. She said she had never heard any noise or ruckus coming from the venue.
“It’s really disappointing because I know what [Holmes Hall] has done is try to please everyone in the community by giving the place a sense of belonging,” she said.
Bartl, Bettio and Taylor opened the restaurant and bar in 2020 on the site of the former Russo’s supermarket at a busy intersection in Moonee Ponds adjacent to the train station.
Almost immediately, Holmes Hall started receiving complaints from two nearby households.
Bartl told The Age one household uses video surveillance equipment to monitor the venue and file their complaints.
“We’re constantly on edge because we’re always having to defend ourselves against the pettiest complaints you’ve ever heard of,” Bartl said. “It has been really obsessive behaviour over the last five years.”
In 2022, one of the residents, Matthew Smith, applied to VCAT seeking to amend Holmes Hall’s planning permit to require stricter patron management, reduced hours of operation, requirements for a seating plan and written consent for live entertainment, updated references to relevant noise regulations and protocols and further restrictions on waste management, loading and unloading.
Holmes Hall co-owner David Bartl accused complainants of raising “the pettiest complaints you’ve ever heard”.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The application was struck out by the tribunal as misconceived and lacking in substance.
“We’re constantly having to defend ourselves against really regular complaints that come through, mostly from the council,” Bartl said.
He said the council’s response has been that if it receives a complaint, it has to follow up on it.
“There really needs to be more of a filtering process,” Bartl said. “It definitely takes a bit of a mental toll, alongside the legal costs involved of going to VCAT on two occasions, and at times we have to get a lawyer to respond to council which has cost tens of thousands of dollars over the last five years just because of two households.”
A spokesman for Moonee Valley City Council said the council was aware of the issues being raised by Holmes Hall.
“As these relate to regulatory and enforcement functions, Moonee Valley City Council will not be making further public comment,” he said.
Holmes Hall’s co-owner Jacob Bettio is the former deputy mayor of Moonee Valley City Council. Last year, an IBAC investigation found he had used his position to influence council decisions in favour of a local soccer club at the expense of other clubs and without declaring conflicts of interest.
Bettio also took to social media last year alleging former mayor Pierce Tyson had confronted him at his home after cocaine was discovered in the bathroom of the council “demanding” he perform a drug test – an incident he described as “a gross invasion of my personal privacy”.
Smith did not reply to a request for comment.
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