PLANS by Woolworths to open a massive booze barn in South Fremantle have been kyboshed by Fremantle city council—again.

Dan Murphy’s—a subsidiary of the grocery behemoth—had asked the planning committee on Wednesday night if it could build the bottle shop at the corner of Hampton and Douro Roads.

The committee decided a liquor store was “inappropriate” for the zoning. The committee further noted that a request from Dan Murphy’s for an additional 110sqm was inconsistent with a previous state administrative tribunal mediation order.

Council previously rejected Woolworths’ plans, but it appealed to the powerful but elected SAT, which ruled the grog shop could go ahead. The council says the new plan deviates from the SAT-approved plan.

South ward councillor Andrew Sullivan says the size of the new application is a legitimate planning concern: “These are a relatively new invention and one that doesn’t easily fit into the land use classifications that are used—that is, is it a shop or a showroom,” he said.

“In the same way we have large supermarkets at local centres, the fact this bottle shop is huge compared to others is not easily controlled by the planning scheme as previous SAT losses have shown.

“The situation is further complicated by the nature of this ‘shopping centre’ which started life as a series of very large showrooms. As such, it has a history of accommodating the type of activity that would not normally be found in a local centre.”

by BRENDAN FOSTER