Keep the Lagoon Cafe Yanchep open

Due to a motion put forward by Cr Linda Aitken at the eleventh hour, the council has rejected all submissions for the new lease of the Cafe. The councillors that voted on this HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN the submissions from any of the candidates.

There is now to be a supposed ‘strategic review’ of the building/area. The building has already been the subject of an extensive condition report and a rent assessment back in March 2016. The condition report carried out by JDI projects found the building to have a remaining life of approximately 20 years.

At great expense to the local rate payers there has been a tender process underway for the new lease of the premises since April 2016. This process was advertised to follow a strict procedure which we were assured would be transparent throughout. The process attracted 38 Stage 1 EOI and 11 Stage 2 EOI.

We listened to our many supporters and critics and thought long and hard about our submission. We submitted 85 pages of extremely detailed and extensive plans for a completely new business which was to include a total refit of the building, new menus, evening opening, music and a strong link to the history, heritage and indigenous culture of the area.

All 11 Stage 2 submissions were scored and assessed by the original team of four City of Wanneroo staff, endorsed by senior staff members and finally the CEO Daniel Simms before submitting the report to council in July, this report was (and still is) made public on the COW website. On the day of the meeting we were informed the report had been withdrawn from the agenda. We eventually discovered a new panel of City of Wanneroo staff were to re-asses the top four submissions.

The second assessment team put forward their report to council for voting on 13th Sept. This report was now CONFIDENTIAL depriving ourselves and the public from commenting. Despite having been endorsed as the preferred candidate on BOTH occasions by BOTH assessment panels, this new motion by Cr Linda Aitken has now rejected all submissions without giving good reason or fair consideration to all of us who submitted.

So much for the 'transparent procedure!!'

This in effect means the Cafe will close on the 25th September, at the start of the school holidays as we have to cease trading by the 30th Sept and vacate the building. It will take some time before any alternative food/refreshment providers can be installed as certain procedures have to be followed. The report, which was confidential for the meeting has now suddenly been made public and states ‘the closure of the premises during this time is likely to present reputational risk for the City….. this could be mitigated by pursuing a short term lease (six months) and/or seeking other vendors (food vans or similar) at the site.’ So the Cafe lease can now only be offered for 6 months, any longer and it comes under the commercial tenancy act and has to be offered for 5 years.

A 6 month lease is unlikely to be taken up by any business as the premises require a complete fit out, we will be leaving it completely empty. Food vans will restrict the already limited parking, particularly with the Surf Lifesaving club building nowhere near completion and all this by their own admission is ONLY being offered to mitigate the reputational risk for the City.

We are in a position to be able to continue with the cafe for 6 months without any operational requirement to close, giving COW time to decide their next move. The Cafe does NOT have to close.