UPDATE: Councillor Des Hudson has refuted claims that council’s decision to deny JD’s Sports Bar extended trading hours was the catalyst for its closure.
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JD’s, which has been closed since a fire gutted the interior in September last year, was denied the extension to trade till 5am at a Ballarat City Council meeting last December.
The bar previously traded until 3am.
“It’s surprising that a two hour window of trade is being blamed for the catalyst of the closure of JDs,” Cr Hudson said.
You can read more about Cr Hudson’s response here.
THURSDAY NIGHT: JD’s Sports Bar has served its last beer.
In a Facebook post tonight, the iconic Ballarat nightspot called it a day, taking aim at Ballarat City Council.
The post says “the fight is all out of this dog,” referring to the failed push to get a liquor licence that would allow the bar to stay open to 5am.
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Previously it was allowed to stay open to 3am.
JD’s had been shut since September last year when it was extensively damaged by fire.
The owners had previously said they hoped to re-open this year.
THE FULL FACEBOOK STATEMENT READS
“Last post for a long time.
We'd like to thank Ballarat for years of support and the great stories we've been able to tell.
After four months of solid negotiations with the council we're pulling the pin and will be moving along to new things.
To our 21 staff, we're sorry and we'll miss you but we know you'll do great things because our team was the best team.
To our loyal patrons, we're sorry to hit the live music scene and have less venues in Ballarat for our bands from here and surrounding areas.
If you'd like to express your displeasure please humour us and let the former mayor DesHudson@ballarat.vic.gov.au know what you think of this hit to Ballarat's remaining nightlife.
Without his amended resolution we're pretty sure this wouldn't have happened but what's done is done and after the fire, the fights all out of this dog.
We'll be actively monitoring comments here and deleting inappropriate ones. Don't go too crazy.
In a couple of months maybe we'll deactivate the page, so trawl the photos and download the ones you want. "Shared" photos will vanish with the page.”