ANGRY Doreen residents have called a meeting to oppose plans for 40 electronic gaming machines at the proposed Laurimar Tavern on Painted Hills Rd.

The application for the poker machines was approved by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) in March, but will be contested in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) next February.

Laurimar resident Marlene Dillon has lived in the estate for the past nine years and said she wouldn’t feel comfortable letting her teenage children walk alone in the estate once the tavern opened.

“If the tavern is only cost-effective with pokies, I say don’t bother,” she said.

“I am sure the land could be used for some other development, like a family friendly restaurant, where residents could sit and look over the wetlands. There are plenty of other venues that survive without pokies.”

Ms Dillon said the Bridge Inn Hotel already had pokie machines and is less than five kilometres from the proposed Laurimar development.

“I can understand having pokies there; it is on a main thoroughfare. But why would you want a venue like this in the middle of a residential area?” she said.

The $12 million proposal also includes a café, a sports bar seating 185 people, two function rooms and an indoor/outdoor children’s play area. The venue opening hours would be from 7am until 3am Monday to Saturday and to 1am on Sundays.

Plenty Valley Baptist Community Church reverend Glenys Dickins said the proposed development was not supported by the majority of the community.

“People are very fearful of what comes with gambling,” Reverend Dickins said.

“If the argument is that we can’t have a venue without pokies, then we want to say ‘we won’t have anything then,’” she said.

Reverend Dickins said the community meeting will give residents the chance to put their feelings about the proposal down on paper before the case is heard by VCAT.

City of Whittlesea Responsible Gaming Forum chairman Sam Alessi said the council expressed its opposition to the proposal at the VCGR hearing.

“Opposition was due to the venue location, the overall increase in gaming machines to the municipality and the already high levels of gaming expenditure in the municipality in conjunction with the high levels of housing debt in the area,” councillor Alessi said.

Dominion Hotel Group will lease the proposed Laurimar Tavern from George Adams Pty Ltd and Prizac Investments Pty Ltd, owners of the building.

In their application before the VCGR, the owners said if the proposal was approved, a community support program would be set up, including an initial contribution of $100,000 for community infrastructure as well as an annual contribution of $70,000 for the next five years.

In the City of Whittlesea, $94 million was lost to pokie machines in the last financial year, the seventh highest net loss in the state.

The meeting will be held in the Laurimar Community Activity Centre on Sunday from 4pm. Contact Marlene on 9717 3451 for more details.