NEIGHBOURS are hoping to stop a pokies club from being built metres from their Point Cook homes.
Plans to include 50 electronic gaming machines at the proposed Point Cook Hotel in Wallace Ave have outraged dozens of neighbours.
Hamada Fayad, who moved into his Dolphin Cr home three years ago, said the project would be built less than 200 metres from his front door.
“They want a licence until 3am seven days a week,” he said. “Can you imagine the noise and loitering?”
Mr Fayad and other neighbours told developers Tiplane Pty Ltd during mediation talks last month that a better location would be in the Boardwalk town centre. It is now under construction, and only a few kilometres south.
“We aren’t opposed to an entertainment venue for the area, but it’s in the wrong location,” he said.
Tiplane representatives could not be reached for comment.
Gary Gielems, another Dolphin Cr resident, said the developer had portrayed the project as a family venue during their mediation talks.
“Clearly it is not because they implied that without the gaming machines, it likely wouldn’t go ahead.”
Tiplane has offered to contribute $75,000 a year to the Wyndham City Council for local community use from the expected $1.2 million it anticipates raising in gaming revenue.
The application for the pokie machines is now with the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR).
The council’s policy is to cap pokie machine numbers at its present level of 571.
It has recently opposed the application to the VCGR but it is powerless to stop the licensing of the machines.
Wyndham has not been identified as one of 19 Victorian councils “at risk” in which machines were removed, or their level capped by the State Government.
Cr Bob Fairclough, who chaired the mediation talks, said he was happy both sides had been able to voice their concerns.
“It’s important to have a community facility in the area where people can meet but that has to be weighed against the gaming aspects,” he said.
Residents at the other end of Wallace Ave fought unsuccessfully two years ago to prevent a 24-hour car wash and petrol station from being approved for their neighbourhood.
