Jetski boss’s jetty expansion hits troubled waters

A frustrated boat and jetski hire operator looking to expand his cramped office space is desperate to argue his case to Noosa councillors.

Geoff Phillips not happy with a council recommendation to stop his jetty office redevelopment. Picture: Patrick Woods

A frustrated boat and jetski hire operator looking to expand his cramped office space is desperate to argue his case to councillors before it goes before Noosa Council on Tuesday.

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U-Drive Boat Hire owner Geoff Phillips is facing a council-recommended refusal and wants to refute claims he's operating out of his Noosaville lease area.

Mr Phillips said the head of the state natural resources department about 10 years ago said his business was allowed operate outside the lease area as long as all equipment was removed at night.

Paris Hilton, the business mascot, is the firing line if the development goes ahead. Picture: Patrick Woods.

"That's the way we used to operate then the council started giving us all these infringement notices," Mr Phillips said.

He said he'd been operating within his boundaries since meeting with the council about the matter.

"We haven't received any infringement notices in almost two years," he said.

That is confirmed by the council application report which showed the last notice was January 14 last year.

"The ideal situation would be to get all the councillors down here before the meeting on Tuesday and show them how small an area we've got," Mr Phillips said.

A council diagram showing the boat hire business's alleged "lease creep".

He said his serving space was so cramped only one person could be served at a time, forcing customers to line up for more than 10m during busy times "almost out to the street".

Mr Phillips said office floor space not including the shelf space was only 4.4m long by 1.4m wide, about one fifth of the space compared to other jetty businesses.

"You can't swing a cat," Mr Phillips said.

"What we're proposing, all of it, is completely within the existing building envelope, it's all (under) our roof area which has all been approved," he said.

If Mr Phillips does manage to convince councillors to approve his redevelopment, a casualty might be his celebrity Paris Hilton mannequin that sits outside astride a jet ski.

"Poor old Paris might have to go the jet ski heaven in the sky because there won't be any room for her," he said.

Council planners claim the proposal to enclose a portion of the front deck and a small portion at the rear of the building has the potential to increase the scale and intensity of the existing hire business.

The report said U-Drive was considered to be "already operating beyond the capacity of the lease area".

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