Council amended a flawed seating proposal for Fitzroy Street following feedback from business owners and residents and advice from St Kilda Police. The Victoria Police Inspector Brett Coloe, of St Kilda, has advised “Victoria Police is supportive of public seating to cater for the diverse needs of the community in public spaces. (However) I oppose on behalf of Police, the installation of new seating infrastructure specifically outside 77 Fitzroy Street and at 121/123 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda.”

The original motion put up by one of the Councillors to place seating near two well-known hotspots for antisocial behaviour was not supported by the Police advice. The proposed installation of one seat outside the pharmacy at 77 Fitzroy Street and one seat outside the convenience store at 121/123 Fitzroy Street, was in direct contradiction to the advice requested from Police, in the City of Port Phillip.

Importantly, Councillors Clark, Cunsolo, Martin, Pearl and Sirakoff voted in favour of amending the motion to relocate seating away from the hotspots, however the amendments were not initially supported by Councillors Bond, Baxter, Crawford and Nyaguy.  

How could any potential candidate in the upcoming Council elections be seen to publicly vote against the advice of the Victoria Police, including most Fitzroy Street Traders, the LGBTIQ+ community and the residents? Thank you to those Councillors who listened to and accepted community feedback.

However, when the substantive motion which incorporated the amendments was then put to the vote, surprisingly Councillors voted unanimously for the amended proposal.

Council heard several business owners including the owner of Blu Oyster speak and the CareMore Pharmacy against the motion at the Council meeting on 17 July, consistent with many Fitzroy Street traders who did not want seating in the hot-spot zones near the convenience store. Surprisingly there was no representative from the Fitzroy Traders Association who originally stated that the traders were in favour of the seating.

A petition with 206 signatures was also presented to the Council objecting to the new seating in Fitzroy Street. The presenter of the petition spoke alarmingly that Council would even think of considering seating anywhere near the Pride Centre which was fast becoming a platform for homophobic attacks on patrons to the Centre.

This was confirmed by the LGBTIQ+ community and staff at the Victorian Pride Centre who privately expressed their concerns about the proposed seating in the hotspot areas because many of their community “are subject to homophobic slurs and threatening abuse when they transit from Star Health in the Victorian Pride Centre to the adjacent CareMore Pharmacy for their Prep medication”.

An exasperated Pride Centre Volunteer said “that two staff have recently resigned at VPC, due to safety concerns, and clients are now choosing to go to Prahran and not the VPC due to the behaviours on the corner of Jackson Street and outside the VPC and adjacent chemist”.

A concerned St Kilda resident said “that are not in favour of installing seats in the hotspot locations because the seating attracts gatherings of large groups of people with complex needs including substance abuse and mental health issues who should be receiving care from housing and medical agencies”.

The police advised a group of residents that they already have scarce resources in Port Phillip and if seating was installed in the ‘hotspots’, then additional police resources would be required to manage antisocial behaviours that are commonly seen in these areas.

Elderly residents who have transferred their PO boxes from Shakespeare Grove Post Office to Fitzroy St Post Office, now refuse to use the PO boxes in this location due to dangerous behaviours, they are too scared to walk up Fitzroy Street.

A St Kilda resident said “One seat becomes a magnet for an encampment and gatherings, one rough sleeper leads to another, followed by a dealer, followed by further transients with trolleys and bedding, leading to the full encampment, at the honey pot seat”.