Red light rage

By Nicole Williams
A NEW brothel for Springvale may have passed through council unopposed but Yiannis Court business owners will not take the decision lying down.
Joan Glenane and Marina Armenian, who have both owned factories on the short street for more than 15 years, said they would take the issue to VCAT.
They were both objectors to the application before it went before the council.
“A lot of people objected to it because we know the first one (brothel in Yiannis Court) caused a lot of angst and now you can’t get staff to work at night in this court,” Ms Glenane said.
“It looks like the court is going to be a little Amsterdam.”
The application to convert a single storey warehouse at 15 Yiannis Court into a brothel was voted for by Councillor Peter Brown and Councillor Loi Troung at the council meeting on 23 January without objections from any other councillors.
The brothel will have five on-street parking spaces but up to nine people will be working in the building at night, plus clients.
There is already a brothel on Yiannis Court and an adult bookstore less than 200 metres away on the corner of Centre Road and Westall Road.
Workers and business owners on Yiannis Court objected that the brothel would turn the Springvale block into ‘red light district’ and that there was already a lack of parking.
Ms Glenane said people were disappointed that the objections were dismissed by council.
“I am very disappointed that they haven’t taken our objections into consideration,” Ms Glenane said.
“We should be heard and we don’t have a say – we are just trying to run ordinary businesses.”
Ms Armenian said it was no longer pleasant to work in the court.
“It’s not pleasant to work in an area with two brothels and Sexyland,” she said.
“This is the second brothel and then there will be a third and then fourth – if they open a second there is no doubt they will open more.”
Ms Glenane said she had problems out of hours at her factory after the first brothel opened and she was forced to erect fences and stop offering night shifts.
“For them to say brothels don’t cause inconvenience – it’s not true.”
Ms Armenian said there is already problems with parking in Yiannis Court and the brothel will only cause more traffic congestion.
“We have trailers and trucks and containers being loaded and unloaded so we have to keep cars off the street,” Ms Armenian said.
“Parking has always been an issue and with the brothel, if I come to work at night, you see that most of the cars parking elsewhere because they don’t want to be seen.”
“The council just didn’t listen to us.”
Greater Dandenong acting Development Services Director Jody Bosman said council officers inspected the site as part of the application process and will respond to any permit breaches as well as undertake ongoing monitoring of the site.