Albany community prepares for third retail trading hours debate in two decades as details of survey fine-tuned

Next month’s community survey on trading hours will be the third time a similar question has been put to the Albany community in the past two decades, after a 2005 referendum and consultation in 2012. The 2005 referendum was run with that year’s local government election and saw 53.6% of votes against optional seven-day trading. The referendum result required an investigation after more than 4000 ballots were not included in an initial count before the final results confirmed 6537 votes against and 5668 votes for. Earlier in the same year, a Statewide referendum on extended trading hours in the Perth metropolitan area was conducted alongside the State election. That poll saw 64 per cent of the recorded votes by Albany electors reject Sunday trading in the metro area. The issue was revisited almost a decade later in 2012 during a public debate that lasted the full year before ultimately petering out seemingly without a definitive decision. Division over the matter split the community and by mid-year the city had appointed consultant Asset Research to conduct community consultation. A decision on whether to put forward the report prepared by the Perth consulting firm to the relevant State minister was set to be made by council in October of 2012 but was instead pushed back two months. When the matter appeared on December’s agenda, it was pushed back for at least a further six months but did not reappear on the council agenda in 2013. Since 2014, the city’s temporary and short term extended trading hours policy has allowed for extended retail trading hours to be applied during peak periods and special circumstances. They allow for general retail trading through to 9pm on weekdays as well as from 10am to 5pm on Sundays and public holidays. They are regularly put in place from the start of December through to the end of January, as well as on long weekends throughout the year.