People power forces Warner Bros to ‘re-evaluate’ plan to hold Harry Potter event in wildlife sanctuary
Community outrage has forced a global entertainment giant to reconsider holding a Harry Potter event in a Mornington Peninsula wildlife sanctuary.
South East
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Entertainment giant Warner Bros is considering moving a Harry Potter light and sound extravaganza from a Mornington Peninsula wildlife sanctuary.
The company has announced it was “re-evaluating the current location of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience in The Briars at Mount Martha”.
Mornington Peninsula Shire chief executive John Baker also released a brief statement saying the council was working with Warner Bros on the re-evaluation and more information would be available soon.
There was no suggestion the event would be cancelled or moved off the peninsula.
Briars Ward councillor Anthony Marsh said while no decision had been made the announcement was welcome news to thousands of community members who have expressed concern about the location of the event.
“It just shows the power of community advocacy,” he said.
The shock announcement came just two days after more than 150 protestors packed the council chambers at Rosebud to ask why the wildlife sanctuary was chosen for the event.
At the same meeting councillors unanimously voted to release confidential minutes regarding their decision to approve the event, pending a legal review.
Green light for Harry Potter event before eco report read
A controversial decision to hold a Harry Potter event on the Mornington Peninsula was made without critical reports being read.
The Herald Sun has been told that ecological and risk assessment reports for the sound and light extravaganza were not given to local councillors until January 9 – more than four months after a secret vote in favour of the event on August 22, 2023.
A council source said the full reports were only provided by council officers after repeated requests.
The Harry Potter: Forbidden Forest Experience will be held within a fenced wildlife sanctuary at The Briars, Mount Martha later this year.
The council’s decision to allow up to 3000 people a night to attend a light and sound extravaganza in a sensitive location has sparked an outpouring of community anger.
Protesters have been calling on councillors to justify their decision since tickets for the event went on sale in December and more than 21,000 people have signed a petition to relocate the show.
Save the Briars Sanctuary spokesman Louise Page said it appeared that councillors were “in the dark” when they voted to hold the “biggest event in the region’s history in such a sensitive and important location”.
“They should have pushed harder to see the full reports and hold off on the vote until they knew exactly what the event entailed,” she said.
However, a council spokesperson said councillors were given “all the essential elements of the report” to allow them to make an informed decision.
“It is routine to include a summary of the essential elements of a long report in the briefing notes so that councillors can quickly get to the heart of an issue,” they said.
The spokesperson confirmed councillors had not seen the contract for the event, but argued that it was “not routine for councillors to see or be involved with those contracts once they have made the initial decision to proceed”.
The claims about the reports came just hours after the councillors voted to lift a cloak of secrecy over the decision to allow Warner Bros and Fever to hold the Harry Potter: Forbidden Forest Experience at The Briars.
Councillors on Tuesday unanimously agreed to make the minutes of the decision “non-confidential”.
All or parts of a report used by councillors to make their decision would now be made public, pending a legal review.
Cr Anthony Marsh initially asked for the matter be considered as urgent business.
However, he stormed out following a spat over when the request would be considered and fears the council would run out of time before it could debate the issue.
Cr Antonella Celi pushed ahead with the request in his absence and it was passed unanimously.
Speaking after the meeting Mr Marsh said the community was entitled to know what information councillors used when approving the event.
He said concerns about breaching commercial-in-confidence requirements could be allayed by seeking legal advice and business elements of the report that had to remain secret could be redacted.
“This is like one of those instances where the cover up can be worse than the crime, in that the public might perceive our lack of transparency around the decision to be worse than the decision itself,” Mr Marsh said.
He said the overall vote would be revealed once the item was removed from confidentiality, but how individual councillors voted would remain secret.
Earlier in the night up to150 protesters packed the council chambers, asking about 30 questions about why the Harry Potter event was approved and how the wildlife sanctuary would be protected.
