Two Wyndham councillors have backed a resident’s call for pricing at the Encore Events Centre to be reduced.
Williams Landing resident Abdul Mujeeb is circulating a petition calling on the council to review its fees to hire Encore, which opened in June this year as part of the $54.4 million redevelopment of Wyndham’s leisure and events centre.
Mr Mujeeb believes Encore is prohibitively expensive compared to other events centres in the western suburbs, and he’s particularly keen that community groups and non‐for‐profit groups are offered subsidised fees for using the centre.
“Encore is a very good facility, but the price is a deterrent for some community groups to use [it] for their functions.”
Wyndham councillor Heather Marcus, who organises Fashion Awards Australia, said Encore’s prices were “exorbitant”, with quotes as much as double those of other venues across Melbourne.
Cr Marcus has run the fashion awards at Lakeside Banquet and Convention Centre at Taylors Lakes in recent years because she could not afford to host the event at Wyndham.
“We really wanted to bring the fashion awards back to Werribee, and we’ve lost Dancesport to the Moorabbin Town Hall because of the high cost,” she said.
Fellow councillor Intaj Khan said the council should consider the public’s concerns and reduce the pricing accordingly.
“At the end of the day, this beautiful facility is for the public … and the public cannot afford to use it.
“This has been built with taxpayers’ money. If you look at the price compared to other council areas, our pricing is at the top-end range.”
Wyndham council chief executive Kelly Grigsby said Encore had hosted 32 events between mid-July and mid-October this year.
Ms Grigsby said community or not-for-profit groups received a 20 per cent price reduction.
“Encore prices are currently being reviewed, in line with regular practice,” she said.
“Venue Management Services were appointed following a public tender process and undertook a benchmarking process to determine competitive pricing.”
