Perth Voice Interactive

THEY were once a quintessential part of the Australian landscape and a social hub for their communities, but a recent bid to give a Mt Hawthorn corner deli a new lease of life has split the neighbourhood.

Number 5 Berryman Street has been a residential home for the past 62 years, but at the front of the property the iconic square shopfront is still visible, and the owners have asked Vincent council for permission to turn it into a cafe.

They’re hoping to lease the cafe out to an operator who can tap into the sporting crowds that gather at Menzies Park across the road, and have proposed turning just 34sqm of the existing house into a cafe capable of hosting 14 patrons.

But neighbours nearby say they purchased their homes on the understanding it was a purely residential neighbourhood and they’re worried noisy customers might start queuing in their street and create a hazard.

Michael Douglas fronted Vincent’s agenda briefing session on Tuesday evening and said he was representing some of the owners who live directly adjacent to the building.

“Sixty-two years ago when this site last had a commercial component, Australia looked quite different,” Dr Douglas said.

“There were fewer cars and fewer cafes, and people had fewer options to get the things they needed.

“These days locals already have an abundance of coffee options,” he said, noting Scarborough Beach Road’s cafe strip was just a 10-minute walk away and had six similar offerings.

Inconvenience

“For residents with a taste for coffee, this proposed cafe would be more of the same, it’s a matter of minor inconvenience to them,” Dr Douglas said.

“But for the residents I represent immediately surrounding this site, this application would lead to a source of major inconvenience; it will affect their street, their sleep, their kids’ safety and the value of their homes.”

Nathan Ebbs also spoke in public question time to note that patrons would have to walk through the kitchen to use the residential tenant’s toilet, as it was the only one on site. He said it made the application unapprovable.

Mr Ebbs said proposed conditions aimed at preventing customers from milling around outside when they were waiting for coffees would be virtually impossible to police.

“A busy cafe on Berryman Street is at odds with the expectations of the residents and the residential amenity in Mt Hawthorn,” Mr Ebbs said.

But Daniella Mrdja from Urbanista Town Planners said back in the ‘50s the store was a deli that served the Mt Hawthorn community.

“When our clients first approached us back in July last year with their intentions to revive the space back into a cafe, my first thought was that this is exactly what the City of Vincent wants,” Ms Mrdja said.

She said it was in an ideal location, was tiny and was aimed at locals.

“The cafe’s not intended to attract users from outside the local neighbourhood or area, rather the intention is to operate in conjunction with existing users of Menzies Park and to serve the local residents.”

Ms Mrdja said the protracted process to get the application before the council had been very stressful for her clients, a point picked up by councillor Nicole Woolf, who said she’d been fielding calls from ratepayers concerned that the application had been lodged in August but was still kicking around the administration.

But Councillor Ron Alexander was concerned about how the application made it as far as getting a recommendation from staff for approval when it comes before the council for a decision next week.

“I’m sure there’s residents who’ve bought adjacent to this house who’ve done their due diligence and see it’s for single use and all the rest of it, then along comes someone assisted by the City of Vincent who seeks approval to change it,” Cr Alexander told his colleagues.

“It doesn’t at first glance seem fair.”

by STEVE GRANT