Half Day Holiday Declared

THE Upper Hunter Shire Council has declared a half day public holiday for the Scone Cup on Friday, May 10.

The half day holiday will be in place across the Shire, with the exception of the Merriwa district.

The Mayor Wayne Bedggood said there was a ‘great deal of community consultation’ to hold the holiday and he looked forward to seeing everybody at the Cup.

In previous years the business community has lobbied for a part day instead of a half day public holiday to ensure local hospitality businesses were not disadvantaged.

An option put forward was to have a part holiday from midday until 6pm, instead of ending at midnight so that local pubs and clubs did not have to pay penalty rates of up to 200 percent on wages. See story: Half Day Holiday Debate.

Ian Campbell, from the Willow Tree Hotel in Scone said since the Saturday races have been held there are also fewer people going out on the Friday night and coupled with holiday rates for staff it impacts on local businesses like his.

“I’m finding even the people that do go out here on the Friday night, by about 10 or 11pm it’s all over because they are going back to the races on the Saturday and there is more on at the racecourse afterwards which keeps them out there as well,” said Mr Campbell.

“We have tried to get a part day holiday and we even got the AHA (Australian Hotels Association) involved but they had no luck putting our case forward to Council,” Ian Campbell said.

The public holiday applies to all businesses across the Shire, including pubs, clubs and restaurants in Murrurundi and Aberdeen, with the exception of Merriwa.