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Pub revamp ticked
Barry Kennedy
04Aug08
A Romsey business group offered its support for a $4.73 million Romsey Hotel redevelopment last week.
The Romsey Business and Tourism Association heard about plans for the hotel from owner Jim Hogan. A secret ballot showed 76 per cent approval for the plans.
The two-stage hotel facelift includes at least 12 motel rooms and a function centre. An application for 30 poker machines has been the centre of a long-running legal battle.
Next month the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will rule on the pokies application after Macedon Ranges Council's successful Supreme Court challenge of VCAT's 2006 approval of the machines.
Association secretary Henry McLaughlin said the vote was on the package as a whole because it was clear it was "not-negotiable".
"Nothing has been done to the hotel site as a whole for 20 years and overall it will be a tremendous asset to the town," he said.
Mr McLaughlin said there were no accommodation or child-friendly hotel facilities in Romsey which caused tourists to go to Gisborne and other townships.
But association member Cr Geoff Neill, who abstained from the vote, said he was opposed to poker machines in Romsey.
Mr Hogan also owns hotels in Kilmore and Ballan. Last year, Mr Hogan paid more than $9 million for the Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo.
Mr Hogan said Romsey would have more "spark" if the hotel could be developed.
VCAT will rule on the poker machines on September 15.
