By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
The Supreme Court of Western Australia has ruled in favour of ALH Group, after the City of South Perth challenged the approval of their plans to demolish the BWS attached to the Como Hotel, and build a Dan Murphy’s store in its stead.
ALH Group received authorisation of their development application from the Metro Central Joint Development Assessment Panel in April 2015, however the City of South Perth council argued that the approval did not consider the Western Australian Planning Commission’s Development Control Policy 5.1 (DCP 5.1), which provides that where regional roads are principally for traffic movement, ideally vehicle access to properties on that road would be restricted.
To access the bottleshop on the Como Hotel property, crossing of the Canning Highway is required. However, the presiding judge, Justice Peter Martino, ruled that appropriate consideration of DCP 5.1 had been made, and that ALH Group could proceed with construction.
The bottleshop construction is part of larger plans for the Como Hotel site, with ALH planning to renovate the hotel and carpark also.