Liverpool Council last night voted to support a radical approach to removing the brothels operating in the central business district.
The council will buy or lease the buildings in which brothels operate in the CBD,
When each brothel’s lease expires, council will not renew the contract with the brothel’s operators.
The idea is, as Councillor Mazhar Hadid told council last night, to force brothels to operate in industrial areas.
Cr Hadid said it was crazy brothels were allowed to continue operating in the CBD in the wake of last week’s siege when George Street was locked down by police for almost eight hours.
“That would have cost a lot of money to those business which were affected by the closure,’’ he said.
“Thousands and thousands of dollars in lost revenue and do we want this to happen again and again.
“No, we don’t and to stop it we need to get brothels out of the CBD.
“This is a plan to boost our economy, in the CBD.
“This plan does not mean brothels will be out straight away but it’s a plan, it’s a start,’’ Cr Hadid said.
There are currently six businesses licensed as “sex service premises’’ in the Liverpool CBD.
On June 20 this year the council changed the Local Environment Plan (LEP) to ban brothels from the CBD and only allow them in industrial areas.
But any brothels already operating enjoy existing use rights. That’s why last night council adopted a new strategy which would be effective in removing legal brothels from the CBD in the medium term.
The council last night also decided to:
· Approve the installation of a Korean War memorial in Bigge Park;
· Look at ways to improve garbage collection in the CBD;
· Spend $100,000 on trees in the CBD;
· Add a culture and arts category to its Australia Day honours;
· Scrap the gold, silver and bronze denominations of its Order of Liverpool awards. Winners will just be known as a Companion, Officer and Member in the Order of Liverpool;
· Stop reporting the number of complaints and compliments received by council until a better system is developed;
· Get serious about having a sister city relationship or not have one at all. The council will investigate options and table a report.
· Allocate another $50,000 towards a master plan for Woodward Park as part of Liverpool’s push to win the third Sydney major stadium bid.
