Brendan Simpkins

LOCAL councillors have demanded answers behind the Gawler’s Civic Centre Café’s prolonged closure.

Along with the rest of the Civic Centre, the café closed its doors in March, following the onset of COVID-19.

However, more than eight months later, it remains closed, despite the rest of the Civic Centre now being open and functioning.

A report on the status and operation of the café was presented to council at the October 27 meeting.

The report stated that Red Centre Enterprises, who manage the café, indicated it is not in a position to re-open given the current economic climate.

Uncertainty over future forced closures following another outbreak were also cited.

Speaking on the motion, some councillors were baffled at how the café could still be closed after so long.

Cr Brian Sambell expressed his disbelief at the closure’s length.

“I believe when they started off management were operating good and it was busy, but when it is such an important area where it is… it’s of so much value that we need someone to come clean, we need to know what is going on,” he said.

“I would say every councillor in this room has been asked what the hell is going on?”

Cr Nathan Shanks echoed the sentiments of Cr Sambell, voicing further “disappointment” that the café was still closed.

“Because I have that disappointment I owe it to the community to try to figure out what is actually going here,” he said.

“Right upstairs we have a hub manager that is supposed to be cultivating businesses and downstairs we have a business that can’t seem to open again. There are just some takeaways there that seem like oxymorons to me.”

In response to Cr Shanks comments, council CEO Henry Inat said Business Innovation Hub manager Andrew Morris was working with the café to help it through the current situation.

Red Centre Enterprises and council have a Social Enterprise Café Management Agreement which sets out obligations of both parties with respect to the café.

Schedule 2 of the agreement outlines nine key points that Red Centre needs to meet with respect to café services.

All bar two of these points are being met, however, Cr Ian Tooley noted that certain points could be met by the café not operating.

He said the circumstances read like an episode of Catch-22 and Monty Python.

“It appears that if you do nothing, you are meeting the objectives of your contract,” he said.

“It would seem to me that most of the scheduled obligations are met by not functioning.

“Therein lies the answer, if you have a contract with this council and you want to meet your obligations, do nothing.”

Following on from Cr Tooley’s comments, Cr Paul Koch fired back saying he “wouldn’t be laughing” at the report or management of the café.

This led to Cr Tooley calling a point of order, however Mayor Karen Redman did not uphold the point of order citing “insufficient information”.

Ultimately the motion was carried, with a confidential workshop with Red Centre to be convened.

Cr Shanks said “hard questions” would follow at the workshop.