AO face possible legal action

The Australian Open organisers may have thought their problems were over after agreeing comprehensive quarantine arrangements for players and moving the event back three weeks to February 8th and establishing a series of warm-up events in the weeks prior to the first major of the season.

I’m more than happy to toss in $10,000 or $20,000 to help the legal fight, it’s bloody shocking Digby Lewis, Westin apartment owner

But the apartment owners at the luxury Melbourne hotel have now raised objections to the arrangements in the hotel saying they were never consulted and accused the management of ‘ambushing’ them with the agreed arrangements, Reuters reports.

“It’s incredibly arrogant to ambush us this way as if it’s a done deal. There are substantive public health and legal issues that have not even been examined,” Mark Nicholson, a long-time apartment owner at the Westin, told Fairfax Media in Melbourne.

Another owner, Digby Lewis, added: “At 84, I’m in the vulnerable group and it’s shocking the way they tried to ram this through without any attempt to consult with us,” and went on to imply that legal action is a possibility.

“I’m more than happy to toss in $10,000 or $20,000 to help the legal fight, it’s bloody shocking.”

Hundreds of competitors are scheduled to arrive in Melbourne over the next few weeks and undergo the strict 14-day quarantine protocols which have been put in place which the Westin management affirm will not impinge on the apartment owners as they would not have any contact with the players who would be using separate entrances and lifts from theirs.

“Their floor will remain exclusive while there will be no reticulation of ventilation between the floors,” the Westin said in a statement whilst declaring that they had kept the residents informed throughout the negotiations.

Tennis Australia have so far not commented on the situation.

Meanwhile Victoria who recorded 800 covid deaths last year are worried that having successfully combated it could now be facing another outbreak as new cases have emerged at the weekend.