By Cara Waters
A popular Balwyn cafe and bar parklet has been ordered to shut down after local traders complained about it taking up three car parks.
Bin 3 opened the parklet outside its cafe and bar on Belmore Road during the COVID-19 pandemic, dubbing the area – with its umbrellas, white picket fence and fake grass – The Birdcage after the exclusive enclosure at Flemington Racecourse.
Bin 3 cafe and cellars owner Tom Mornement with customers on Friday afternoon. Credit: Penny Stephens
Customers use the parklet to sit outside and have a coffee during the day or a glass of wine in the evenings.
“Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday is full of a nighttime,” Bin 3 co-owner Tom Mornement said.
“It’s all the local community getting together and meeting each other and having a drink or a coffee or milkshakes with their kids, all that kind of stuff.
“There’s 11 local restaurants here so we’ve got all their menus laminated and at the shop so people can order in fish and chips, have a pizza with us, have a drink.”
Bin 3 must pay $150 per square metre annually to the council for the parklet, which Mornement said worked out to just under $5000 a year.
The parklet is so popular that the City of Boroondara late last year proposed making it permanent and widening the footpath to accommodate it.
However, after complaints from nearby businesses, the council backflipped and ordered its removal – despite strong support from the community.
A group of 31 business owners made a submission to the council in December asking for the parklet to be shut down because of the impact on car parking.
“The three spaces given to this area has made it difficult for cars to find a spare space and our feedback has been, ‘it’s too hard to get a park some days so we have just kept driving’,” the submission said.
“We question the equity/fairness in allowing this in favour of one business at the exclusion of all the other businesses.”
Tony Doherty, who owns a nearby cafe, said Bin 3’s parklet was taking up space at other traders’ expense.
He said the parklet was not well-used most of the week and was unsafe with “ugly orange barricades” the only protection from traffic.
“Many people on the street comment at what an eyesore it is to the street landscape,” he said.
The owners of Bin 3 cafe and cellars, father and son Tom Mornement and Peter Mornement. Credit: Penny Stephens
In December, Boroondara Council conducted public consultation of 266 people and found 72 per cent supported widening the footpath in the street to make the parklet permanent, while 26 per cent were opposed to it and 2 per cent were unsure.
The council decided not to proceed with making the parklet permanent and demanded the removal of the furniture and structures by June 30.
A council spokesman said that while many residents believed parklet dining helped the centre thrive and added a positive space to the streetscape, most business owners felt car parking was more important.
“Council had taken the view the outcome should benefit all traders, not just one, and therefore made its decision,” she said.
But Bin 3 said there were 190 car parks in the vicinity.
The cafe and some residents are fighting back. A petition opposing the parklet’s closure on Change.org attracted more than 600 signatures in two days.
Terrence Walker lives nearby and said he would be extremely disappointed if Bin 3’s parklet was removed.
“It has been absolutely wonderful for our community because people naturally congregate there,” he said.
“They support local businesses with takeaway meal options and it is unique for that urban strip and part of what we want to do in Melbourne is re-energise these urban strips.”
Bin 3 has requested a review of the council’s decision, which will be referred to a meeting of councillors for debate.
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