OFF THE WIRE
Residents in the southern Tasmanian township of Kingston have voiced concerns over a plan to set up a Rebels clubhouse.
The Rebels Motorcycle Club has had an informal presence at the Browns Road site for some time, but lodged a formal development application in December 2011.
Kingborough Councillor and Planning Committee deputy chair, Flora Fox, has told Statewide Mornings' Leon Compton she's received an anonymous phone call from one local who's afraid to submit a formal objection.
"He's worried about retribution and I think that's a general feeling among the residents," she says.
"The residents are meeting and expressing their concerns as a group but they're all feeling very anxious about coming forward and putting their names on paper."
Alderman Fox says the association between motor cycle clubs and violence has left some people scared.
"You can't judge them all by a few individuals but there is a bit of anxiety in the area," she says.
The building has an existing liquor license, with the application proposing operating hours until 3am from Thursday to Saturday.
Ms Fox says with motorbikes potentially coming and going until the early hours, residents are worried about noise pollution.
"They're concerned at the disturbance at their residential amenity," she says.
"Even though I think the clubrooms are in a commercial industrial area... it's like a basin.
"Houses in the hills around there would hear noise if there was loud music and a lot of motorbike noise."
She says the application will be assessed on its own merit.
"We have to look at our planning scheme and whether the application fits within the planning scheme," she says.
"We cannot look at individual applications on the basis of the merit of the applicant; personalities are not allowed to come into this."
Devonport lawyer and motorcycle rider, Greg Richardson, says locals have no reason for concern.
"No more than they should be concerned about the local football club setting up a club house or any other planning application," he says.
Mr Richardson says the media creates most of the problems involving motorcycle clubs, by branding them as gangs.
"I'd be very surprised if they're not an incorporated body, same as all the other clubs are, and they're entitled to the respect of being called what they are," he says.
"Not what some media person wants to use as an emotive term to try and make it sound much worse than it really is."
He urges people not to be quick to judge local motorcycle clubs.
"As far as I'm aware there have never been any problems between any clubs in this state," he says.
"Don't just tarnish the whole group simply because someone one the mainland did something,"
Mr Richardson says he doesn't represent the Rebels, but has worked for other groups and on the development application for an Outlaws club house in East Devonport.
"A number of people in particular elderly people who live in the street have been down to the clubhouse and expressed their delight about the fact there's been a significant downturn in the number of burglaries in the area," he says.
"Apparently thieves and burglars don't want to go around the area where the motorcycle club is, for whatever reason."
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/02/06/3424108.htm