Following recent media coverage and comments on the Le Sands restaurant, Council has released the statement below:
Council acknowledges the dedication of Peter and Elizabeth Antonopoulos in running Le Sands restaurant, which was part of the fabric of Brighton Le Sands for over 40 years.
They were able to build their restaurant business, as well as sub-letting the majority of their tenancy to other restauranteurs. Our Lease arrangement allowed them to keep all of the rental income from the sub-tenants, but also gave them maintenance responsibilities for the building.
Council had worked with the Antonopoulos family over many years to resolve recurrent breaches of the Lease agreement Council had with them. This resulted in the successful negotiation of a Settlement Deed earlier this year, but this was breached by the Antonopoulos family shortly after being signed. Council is yet to recover outstanding amounts in excess of $100,000.
Council has an obligation to be a responsible custodian of Brighton Pavilion, which is a significant community asset.
Unfortunately, this resulted in Council ending its relationship with the Antonopoulos family regarding the former lease for Le Sands and the tenancies above.
The building is now in need of substantial repairs. Council is aware of a number of statements by the former tenants attributing blame for the condition of the building to Council, which necessitates this statement being issued. The source of many of the defects is the lack of ongoing maintenance, which was the responsibility of the former tenant. The fat and water leak in the Le Sands kitchen referred to in recent media reports resulted from non-compliant plumbing work overseen by the Antonopoulos family as former head tenant.
Council has undertaken a thorough assessment of the building and continues to repair the numerous and costly defects identified. The work that Council has already completed or commenced includes works to the value of $1.5m:
- Roof repairs and identification of redundant equipment and materials
- Removal of more than 500kg of bird/animal waste removal from gutters
- North and south viewing terrace upgrades
- Emergency internal plumbing repairs
- Internal deep cleaning, de-fitting and make good repairs in preparation for new tenants
Work is also currently underway to determine how best to refresh and reactivate the Pavillion to ensure it is available to benefit the local community for many years to come.
The state of the building when it was returned to Council means that this will be a multi-million dollar project. Council looks forward to sharing more details with Bayside's residents as this work progresses.
