By BRIDGET COOK
THE party is over for the Cranbourne Blue Light Disco after it was given the marching orders from its venue operators in recent months.
The last disco was held on Saturday night with the popular event for Casey youths now not having a place to call home.
The Cranbourne Public Hall Committee gave the disco organisers three months’ notice in April that the event could no longer be held there for a number of reasons, including that the use was inconsistent with other hall users.
Cranbourne Blue Light Disco committee member Ian Gration said it was a shame that the event could no longer go ahead at the hall, where it has been held for the past six years.
“We have about 500 kids there on Saturday night,” he said.
“Now where are they going to go for fun? They will end up walking the streets.
Mr Gration said organisers had so far failed to find another suitable venue.
“I don’t think there is another venue in Cranbourne that’s big enough to hold that many kids,” he said.
Mr Gration said the disco committee had tried to work things out with the hall committee with no success.
“We’ve asked them to come to mediation with us and solve the problem but we’ve just hit a brick wall,” he said.
“We’ve offered to pay extra in rent to have the floor maintained but they have still said we are not compatible and have to go.”
Disco committee member and Cranbourne CFA volunteer Anthony Lake said organisers had tried to get the matter resolved.
“At the end of the day we do it for the kids and if it gets shut down it’s just going to push the kids out on the streets,” he said.
“We’ve gone through all the avenues to try and get this resolved and got nowhere.
“Why have we been kicked out all of a sudden?
“There are between 400 and 600 kids that enjoy this event monthly.”
Cranbourne Public Hall Committee secretary John Cooper said the main issue was with the state the disco left the flooring in.
“It does great damage to the floors,” he said.
“It’s waxed and polished and takes a lot of time and effort to get it back up to a standard for other users to be able to use it, and it can be out for a few days after it.
“Its use is inconsistent with other users. That’s the sad bottom line.”
Mr Cooper said they were not trying to be belligerent and realised what a great event it was for the community.
“We are not trying to ruin things for the kids,” he said.
“It’s not a decision we took lightly and we understand the benefits the event has to the community.
“But it’s been an issue we haven’t been able to resolve.
“There ends up being soft drink all over the floor and chewing gum.
“It lifts the polish and then we have to strip the whole floor, then mopped and dried, then apply wax and that has to dry and then polish and buff it. That can take up to a few days.
“Once we had a wedding planned for the next day and we had to refund them some money because of the state of the floor.”
Mr Cooper said the committee believed there was other venues more suited for the disco.
“There’s a hall at the Cranbourne high school and Balla Balla centre,” he said.
“Surely there are other venues around that are more suited.”
Mr Gration urged anyone that could offer them a new venue to call him on 0419 894 974.
