By Brendan Rees
Staff at The Amazing Grace café in Cranbourne is at the end of their tether as they continue to freeze through winter.
The café, which was once the St. Agatha’s Church on South Gippsland Highway, has been without heating since it opened its doors to the public in April.
Owner Paul White says it’s been a waiting game with Victorian power company AusNet Services who are responsible for upgrading the café’s power supply so it can run heaters.
“We need to do something about it, everything gets such a chill to it; the kitchen staff are wearing thermals it’s that bloody cold,” he said.
According to Mr White, he had an electrician assess the café’s power consumption with the results forwarded onto AusNet Services but “this is four or five months down the track and I’m wondering what’s going on.
“It has a fairly diverse effect on the business. We ‘re only open on Friday and Saturday’s – people want to come and sit in the main church, I can’t do it with bas bottles.” he said.
“With the way winter has been this year it’s been pretty unrelenting.”
Casey councillor Amanda Stapledon led an urgent business motion at a 17 July council meeting with councillors voting to write to AusNet Services seeking an estimate time of when the power supply will be upgraded from 80 amps to 180 amps to the café.
Council will also contact the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio “if further lengthy delays are anticipated.”
Cr Stapledon said the matter was having a “detrimental impact” to the café.
“This is very, very frustrating for the business; they are going ahead in leaps and bounds in terms of patronage and wonderful food and drink and beautiful atmosphere.”
Cr Stapledon added: “The beauty of being on council is that we can at least contact them and say ‘Look what’s the hold up? Can you help us?’”
Meanwhile, staff and customers have been forced to bear the grunt of the cold.
Adding to the frustration was the fact that the café experienced a burglary in May with Mr White still left waiting for settlement from his insurance company.
“You get to a stage where things have got to turn sooner or later,” he said.
AusNet Services confirmed they were looking into the matter. “We’re sorry the Amazing Grace staff and patrons are still awaiting the power upgrade. We’re working with the café owners and will endeavour to do everything we possibly can to complete the process,” an AusNet spokeswoman said.
An outcome will come back to council in August.
