Brawl over café basketball hoop
The owner of a Canberra café have been pulled up over putting up a basketball hoop outside his venue.
Fox and Bow owner Alex Piris says all he’s trying to do is create some fun community spaces.
But the Transport and City Services Department has told Piris it has to go. They slapped a green sticker on it and said it had to be removed.
Apparently, there was a report of a near miss between a child and car in the area.
Piris has now taken to social media and put up a post on Twitter calling for a permanent park across from the Farrer shops “with a proper basketball court, BBQs and a safe playground.”
Piris says the hoop brings some life to the small set of shops in the southern Canberra suburb.
He says the Farrer community has described the department’s move as “heavy-handed.”
"The benefit brought to our local shops and local community far outweighed any negative aspects," Mr Piris told the Canberra Times.
"When you look at Kingston Foreshore and Braddon, I'm sure what goes on in Braddon doesn't fit the criteria for normal practice but they're supportive of it because it's bringing in people and that's what I thought this local government was about.
"We're out here in the suburbs and we want to have a fair crack at it ourselves. We're trying to have a bit of fun out here.
"I think it's something that's been blown out of proportion and hopefully common sense prevails."
But the department says it’s only trying to do the right thing.
"TCCS attempted to locate the owner of the basketball hoop to come to an arrangement that is both safe and fun for the local community," a department spokesman told the Canberra Times.
"We appreciate that the community values this space as a play area, but safety is also a priority, particularly around roads."
by Leon Gettler, December 6th 2016
