Perth Voice Interactive

COCKROACH infestations, semen-stained sheets, fire hazards and even urine leaking from light fittings: the building owned by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and husband Joe has been the subject of numerous complaints and still the Perth city council hasn’t shut down the backpackers business that runs there.

While the business is run by a tenant the building is owned by the Scaffidis and its decrepit state has been the focus of many complaints over some years.

As lord mayor Ms Scaffidi often calls for higher standards in tourism and hospitality—she’s called on cabbies to clean their cars, on nightclubbers to stop peeing in public, and on businesses to lift their service game (she once expressed frustration a bakery wouldn’t sell her bread, before it opened).

One of many complaints to the council about the Grand Central Hotel backpackers—obtained through a Freedom of Information request—sums up the kind of welcome it offers travellers: “The bed had one filthy sheet on it with obvious semen stains, no towels and cockroaches crawling out from under the dirty bed cover,” wrote the complainant. That person was privately dubbed a “whinger” by Ms Scaffidi.

Another complainant wrote to the council, “could you please explain why a place such as the Grand Central Backpackers can remain open?”

“The reviews on TripAdvisor are damning, and it does the reputation of backpacker hostels no good at all having a place like that allowed to stay open… this is worth looking into for the sake of our international reputation.”

The Sunday Times did a story on the place in May and stayed there overnight, reporting “the experience mirrored most of the reviews online”.

The Voice asked Ms Scaffidi if it was hypocritical to be telling other businesses to do better given she owned this place. We also asked why she and her husband hadn’t booted out their tenants in a bid to improve Perth’s tourism experience.

Her reply: “No comment.”

Complaints to the city involve a five-year list of repeated violations, observed by both council health officers and Fire and Emergency Services inspectors. In 2011 the WA health department wrote to the council stating a police officer had visited the building and “noticed yellow liquid dropping from the light fitting in the reception area and when she queried it, was told that when someone flushed the toilet on the first floor, the liquid went into the light fitting and dripped into the reception area.

“She said that the smell was very strong and that the staff seemed unconcerned.”

The owners were ordered to fix that, but year after year problems kept surfacing, from mould infestations, a dirty kitchen, staff with no emergency training, and “ongoing concern regarding the structural integrity” of the building with bad cracking on the upper floor (though it apparently passed an inspection last year).

In 2013, council health officer Ahmed Yassin wrote to the business owners regarding plaster falling from the ceiling in occupied rooms and said, “it is disappointing that the city continues to receive complaints about the premises on an ongoing basis”.

Online reviews suggest the place has not improved, morphing from a budget backpackers into a pad for homeless people, drunks, criminals “and people fresh from jail and the mental hospital”.

And despite the environmental inspection tick, the most recent official document we obtained shows that safety problems persist: in March this year inspectors noted emergency lighting wasn’t illuminated “during hours of darkness”.

The Voice has asked senior communications officer Michael Holland three times in August and September what is required for the council to shut a hostel down, and whether this building has been given preferential treatment because it is co-owned by the lord mayor. He has not responded.

by DAVID BELL