Kittens’ South Melbourne club wants to boost patron numbers by 80 people a night
It’s been the target of several drive-by shootings, but a notorious South Melbourne strip club wants to open up to more pleasure-seeking patrons, and it says any claims of adverse impacts would be “clutching at straws”.
Inner South
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Business appears to be booming at a raunchy South Melbourne nightclub, with plans afoot to allow more revellers through the doors.
An application has been submitted to Port Phillip Council to boost patron numbers at notorious Cecil St venue Kittens by 80 people a night.
The venue is presently is open 7pm to 3am every night and has a 300-person limit, and documents show the extra pleasure-seekers would be catered for inside, and not on the roof deck.
Port Phillip Acting Mayor Louise Crawford said the council had received two objections to the proposal, which cited concerns over an increase in anti-social behaviour and the strip club being “inappropriate in this location”.
But Kittens’ own planning report hosed down claims of adverse impacts, saying the venue had already operated there successfully for more than a decade.
“To suggest there is some sort of amenity issue arising from this proposed amendment would be to take a fanciful, clutching at straws, doomsday type approach to decision-making,” the report states.
“There is no enforcement action or even any complaints/queries from the council about compliance in the 12 years since the permit was granted.
“The demonstrated ‘good behaviour’ can be attributed to good venue management and … can only be in our favour.
“The increase in patron numbers from 300 to 380 will not lead to any unreasonable or unacceptable impacts.”
The South Melbourne venue was the target of several drive-by shootings in 2016.
The club’s sister venue in Caulfield South was destroyed in a firebombing that same year in what was believed to have been a feud between security companies with bikie links.
The council is expected to decide on the application for added patrons by early September.
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