At a glance
- Venue
- Bar
- Place
- Bayside, south-east Melbourne
- Issue
- Council planning enforcement over old permit conditions
- Result
- Council's legal team agreed the conditions no longer bound the venue and decided not to contest it (October 2026)
What was at risk
The bar's planning permit carried conditions that capped how it could trade: how many people it could hold, the hours it could serve liquor, its music and its delivery hours. Council's planning compliance team took these conditions up with the venue as an enforcement matter.
If the conditions stood, the bar was held to those limits. Any breach could lead to further steps, such as infringements or an application to VCAT (the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) for an enforcement order.
The obstacle
The conditions were written into the permit, and a permit is enforced on its terms, not its intent. On paper, the permit still said what it said. Council's starting point was that the venue had to comply.
So the real question was not whether the bar had kept to the conditions. It was whether those conditions still had any effect.
What we did
We looked at where each condition came from. Before 1 July 2025, selling liquor needed a planning permit under clause 52.27 of the planning scheme. Many venue permits picked up liquor hours, patron limits and music conditions through that permission.
On 1 July 2025, Amendment VC286 removed clause 52.27 from every Victorian planning scheme. Since then, a planning permit is no longer needed to sell or consume liquor.
We put our position to council in writing: the conditions it was relying on no longer bound the venue after VC286. We dealt with council directly, as consultants, and kept the focus on that one question.
The result
Council's legal team reviewed our position and agreed. In October 2026, council decided not to contest it.
The bar now trades free of the conditions that had capped its patron numbers, liquor hours, music and delivery hours.
When a council enforcement notice relies on old permit conditions
Many Victorian permits still carry conditions from the old clause 52.27 permission. Our position, as consultants and not legal advice, is that conditions that related only to clause 52.27 no longer have effect. Conditions tied to a permission the scheme still requires, such as buildings and works, car parking, signage or a use that still needs a permit, continue to bind.
Sorting one kind from the other is the work. It is different for every permit. You can read more about old liquor conditions on planning permits and what VC286 changed.
If council has written to you, respond early and in writing. Our page on responding to a council enforcement notice explains the first steps.