Goulburn Workers Club CEO Brett Gorham said architects discovered the problem during investigations into a multi-storey car park at the club’s rear.

They believed, based on old town plans, that a section of its northern carpark and part of a rear foyer occupied 297 square metres of the council road reserve.

“It appears to be a mistake at government level where data wasn’t updated. A 1950 town plan shows that the area was dedicated for McKell Place widening,” Mr Gorham said on Monday.

“I brought it to the council’s attention. We would have had to buy it if we wanted to do anything else.”

Mr Gorham said it raised the question of how previous DAs were approved. But on Tuesday he said the Department of Lands confirmed that the land was part of McKell Place and the club had not encroached on it.

Councillors at their meeting last week deferred a staff recommendation to sell the 297 square metre area to the club for $201,600 to address the problem.

Cr Margaret O’Neill said she wanted council planners to check sunset clauses in two previous development applications first. They were for the club’s construction on a former supermarket site and its extension in 2002, both of which carried parking requirements.

“This is scandalous,” she said.

“The Workers Club has twice been asked to put in a certain number of carparks and they haven’t done it.”

But Mr Gorham wasn’t aware of any deficit of spaces or clauses in previous DAs. 

However a council report stated that under the 2002 extension approval, the club had to provide an additional 51 spaces by August, 2005 on top of the 96 there at the time. But currently there are only 82 spots for cars and six for other vehicles.  

Mayor Bob Kirk said the 51 spaces were not added and the issue “slipped under the radar.”

The club is in the initial stages of developing a master plan, taking into account future development. Mr Gorham said there was no concrete plan for expansion but extra car parking could be on the cards.

“At peak times we do struggle,” he said. 

“We don’t have the plans fully done yet but one idea is to put a multi-level car park over the existing ones. We contacted architects to look at options and to come up with costings. It may well be that it’s too pricey.”

In any event, the road reserve matter will come back to the council. If sale of the 101sqm road reserve had gone ahead, a road closure application to the Department of Lands would have been necessary.