Tecoma McDonald’s protesters dress up as Santas for Christmas

PROTESTERS dressed up as Santas over Christmas at Tecoma Macca’s but franchisee James Currie says festive season trade “exceeded expectations”.

The No Macca's in Tecoma protesters continued their campaign outside the store throughout the Chr

THE owner of the controversial Tecoma McDonalds store says it won’t be going anywhere after exceeding expectations.

A handful of protesters — some in Santa suits — could still be seen most days over the Christmas holiday period waving banners in front of the store.

According to the No McDonalds in the Dandenong Ranges group, locals have turned their back on the store nine months after opening.

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However, franchisee James Currie said the store was trading well.

“I refute that. The protesters are only there at 8am in the morning, they’re not there at lunchtime and dinner,” he said.

“The store exceeded expectations when it opened and then settled down and it has been very consistent. We’re very happy and we’re not going anywhere.”

Mr Currie said his store employed about 100 staff including 15 full-time and 85 casuals, with all but three from the local area.

He said he respected the protesters’ right to protest and said they had not impacted the store in any significant way.

“It is a small group of people and everyone has the right to have an opinion,” he said.

No McDonalds in the Dandenong Ranges spokesman Garry Muratore said the protests would continue this year and they would most likely be there on Australia Day.

He said recent customer counts indicated that locals were turning their back on the store.

“We can only go by what we see and we don’t see a lot of people there,” he said.

“We said very early in the campaign that we live here and it’s not hard for us to go away. This is not a ‘rent-a-crowd’ — these are locals saying you are not wanted.”

In 2011 the Shire of Yarra Ranges voted unanimously against the McDonalds store, but the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) overruled the decision despite receiving a record 1100 rejections.

In its decision, VCAT said it couldn’t take into account the objections and the council decision but be based on the planning merits.

Before the election, Labor promised to change the state’s planning laws to give locals a greater say when objecting to controversial developments.

Mr Muratore said under the Government’s proposal, the Tecoma store would have never been approved.

He said his group was now helping other communities fight off big fast food chains including Ballarat, Bendigo and Mandurah in Western Australia.

“We have also presented at countless community meetings around the country sharing our story with enthusiastic audiences,” he said.

But Mr Currie said he didn’t think the Labor’s changes would have impacted on his store.

“There’s 158,000 in the Yarra Ranges Shire, so I don’t think (the proposed laws) would have had a huge impact,” he said.