Trigg: Yelo owner relieved with outcome in legal dispute with City of Stirling

IT is back to business as usual for popular Trigg cafe Yelo after winning a lengthy legal dispute against the City of Stirling this morning.

Owner Michael Pond said he was relieved the ordeal was over and was pleased with the Magistrate’s decision.

“Yelo is a real community asset; the most important thing in all of this is we can continue to operate Yelo in the same way as we have over the last eight years,” he said.

Mr Pond said staff, local residents and customers had been a “huge support”.

Last year, the City took the business to court for alleged breaches of takeaway planning regulations, as it claimed customers consumed food and beverages on the premises.

In 2012, Yelo applied for another licence that was denied by the City because there was a parking shortfall in the area.

Magistrate Richard Bayly acquitted owner Michael Pond of the charge and said the City needed to pay the court costs of $33,414 for the five-day trial.

Stirling health and compliance manager Peter Morrison said the City had spent $90,000 on legal fees over the past 18 months.

“I need to make this very clear: we did not go after Yelo, there was no alternative but to take the matter to the court, we had to resolve the situation one way or the other,” he said.

“It is not a waste of time; it has given us an outcome that the City will now move forward on.

“I think if you were to speak with the residents in that area that they would not think that it was a waste of the City’s money because we were actually dealing with their concerns as well.”

Mr Morrison said the City would pursue parking issues as normal and had received an average of 11 parking complaints per day.

“The City will respond to complaints about parking as we usually do but we will no longer be pursuing any planning issues on that site,” he said.

“I’m not aware that there are any plans to put in more parking; there are not many opportunities for additional bays in this area.”

MORE: Work begins on new WA museum

MORE: Pizza delivery driver suffers dreadful injuries in hit and run

MORE: Mandurah man takes novel approach to finding work