I opened a retail Craft store in October 2002 in a suburb in Launceston Tasmania.

In January of 2003 the Launceston City Council issued letters to state they were doing road works in my street. My business is situated next door to a Large Shopping Complex which was carrying out extensions at the time. I am situated at the end of a cul de sac and I rang the Launceston City Council and asked them to do the road works after the new extensions were done, as no one would be able to access my business if they were to do it when they had scheduled it. Ignoring my plea's the road works went ahead.

The Launceston City Council took up to 7 weeks to complete their work. In that time they blocked the street on a number of occasions, ran advertising to ask people to avoid the area and told customers trying to access our business that there was nothing down there so why would they need to go. After 7 weeks of roadworks and hardly any cash flow, I lost part of my business. The bank then foreclosed on our loan and I lost a rental property which was part of my superannuation.

After fighting this for some 6 years - it became evident that they would never be made accountable for their actions.

I refused their $5000.00 exgratia payment on 3 or 4 occasions as it really was an insult to my intelligence. I lost $300,000 plus and this does not account for all the stress over the years!

In January of 2009 after building my business back up to a very successful position, I decided to extend the front of the building to house more of our retail stock. When it was being built we decided that the new space was so good we would add a Cafe to the front of the building. Our Cafe - named "Cafe S" is now a very popular eating spot in Launceston and hailed as having some of Launceston's finest cuisine.

All advertising was done to change use to restaurant, and approved. I applied for a liquor license and the licensing board granted the license. Then the Launceston City Council began to make another very serious series of mistakes. The building department would not allow our Liquor license to be effective, due firstly, to the toilets being positioned too far away from the Cafe. After much debate they decided that the distance was fine but that I didn't have enough. Asking for 1 female/wheelchair, 1 male and 1 separate staff toilet. They placed restrictions on our trading making us trade with just 20 patrons at any one time and no liquor license. We lost huge amounts of money and all our Christmas/business/birthday functions. The loss from all this would be approx. $150,000 plus - without taking into account the amount of stress I was again forced to endure.

In December 2009 after spending lots of money on plans for new toilets etc. I discovered that the information given to me was incorrect. They quickly rectified the mistake and allowed us to trade with 50 patrons and our liquor license. but the loss of the previous 5 months had already taken its toll on our business again.
I was told to simply put a claim in. Having been down that stressful track once before - I am yet to go down it again. Knowing full well that the claim gets submitted to the insurance Company, They deny the claim and then we are offered a simple exgratia payment again to make it all go away! I simply can't afford lawyers fees to fight the unfightable this time aaround.

Stressed out and basically broke again, we finally submitted the plans for our new toilets only to be told that we were "illegally" operating in part of our Cafe and that we must "cease operation on the Southern Side of the Cafe by the 31st of May 2010" or face prosecution - even though we had been operating for nearly 12 months and without 1 word being said previously. When planning advertised Change of use for my 2 blocks (1 zoned business and 1 zoned closed residential) they advertised both blocks. When they issued a permit to operate they issued a permit for both blocks 16 and 18 Reuben Court. They have now compromised and said I can now operate on the Southern side of the block after 9.00am, before 5.00pm and with no alcohol. This rules out early morning breakfasts, evening dinners and all functions. It leaves me with 3 fully functionable tables which is just not viable.

Local Governments seem to be able to do what and when they like and without any consequence to them at all.

We appeal to the residents of Australia and in particular Launceston Tasmania to all stand up and CHANGE LEGISLATION TO MAKE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. Don't let this happen to you or anyone else that you know!

If you feel strongly enough about this matter please email all of the people below and forward this petition on to all the people you know for them to sign!.

Launceston City Council Website is www.launceston.tas.gov.au
Launceston City Council Email is council@launceston.tas.gov.au
Minister for Local Government Labour Party A.Albanese,MP@aph.gov.au
Minister for Local Government Liberal Party W.Truss.MP@aph.gov.au

Thank you for supporting a change that is so needed in Australia and in particular Launceston Tasmania!

Your comments are welcome at the bottom of the petition, especially if you have been a victim as we have been! We all want to hear your stories too!

Suzi Foggo
Crafty Critters (Australia) Pty. Ltd. & Cafe S