Media Response Anytime Fitness Music

Questions and Responses

ENQUIRY

So it's been said the Monash Council gave Anytime Fitness Glen Waverley an official warning for playing offensive music on an external PA and were asked to remove the external speaker because they didn't have a permit.

Would you be able to please confirm this? And if that could come back as a quote about the incident and Monash Council's stance on offensive music being played from a business for the public to hear, that would be amazing!

RESPONSE

One of our Planning Investigations Officers attended Anytime Fitness in Glen Waverley on 28 May 2018 after Council received a complaint that music with offensive lyrics were played by the gym that could be heard via a speaker on the outside of the building. The speaker was connected to a main sound system inside the building, which meant if the volume was turned up inside then the volume outside would increase too.

Under its planning permit, the business was not allowed to have an external sound system and our officer hand delivered a letter to the business requesting the outside speaker be disconnected.

Our team followed up on 8 June 2018 and found that the speaker had been disconnected.

The gym’s assistant manager told our officer that gym members were able to select songs to play while they did their workouts and usually, a content filter was in place to ensure music with explicit lyrics couldn’t be played. However on the day that the complaint from the public was received, the content filter had not been turned on.

Both the Summary offences Act enforced by Police and Council’s Local Law include controls around indecent language that may apply to a matter such as this. 

Issued: 4 April 2019
To: Progress Leader
Quoting: Mayor, Councillor Shane McCluskey