The Port Stephens Aquatic and Sailing Club says it is "surprised and concerned" by claims from Port Stephens Council suggesting that club management's failure to observe health and safety obligations as a reason for the council to call for Expressions of Interest into the running of the clubhouse.
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"Any suggestion of a failure by the club to observe and take its health and safety obligations seriously is denied emphatically and is simply incorrect," a club spokesperson said.
"Concerns were raised in regard to two electrical matters in late 2019, one notified to the council by the club, and the other performed by a reputable electrical firm that the cub addressed with the relevant council officer.
"Apart from an email in early February 2020 indicating that a response was being prepared and that the council would be in touch to arrange a meeting, to our knowledge no further correspondence was received from council on the health and safety issues."
A council spokesperson confirmed that communication with the club via email, phone and formal correspondence had taken place from November 2019 to February 2020.
Asked to clarify its health and safety concerns with the club, the council spokesperson said they were of a "confidential nature" and had been communicated with the licensee.
The club spokesperson said that senior club officials had assumed council had accepted its explanations.
"If the matters were so serious as to warrant not renewing the licence and going to an EOI as the council now claims, surely some further correspondence with the club should have occurred."
In response to club claims that council officers had advised the club "going to an EOI is now a new policy of the council", the council spokesperson said: "We had previously been in the process of reviewing and updating the Community Leasing and Tenancy Policy. While we discussed the draft policy the decision to open an EOI was based solely on the terms of the occupancy licence and the health and safety matters."
PSSAC has operated from the premises at Seaview Crescent safely for many years and has, it says, maintained a good working relationship with the council.
"We have sought an urgent meeting with the mayor and general manager to discuss the claims and the apparently inconsistent explanations as to the reasons for the EOI occurring."
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