The pub split between two Sydney councils and the fight over who should get it

Two feuding councils whose boundary lines divide a popular Sydney pub are at loggerheads over which municipality the venue should sit in, in a years-long fight the hotel’s owner has described as “petty”.

The Winston Hotel, in Winston Hills in Sydney’s north-west, pays rates to both Parramatta City and the Hills Shire councils. And if it wants to develop the property, it is required to submit separate applications to both councils.

The odd border quirk is one of dozens of seemingly arbitrary council boundaries drawn up across Sydney that can result in landowners being forced to pay two sets of rates, and submit development applications twice – once to each council.

The Winston owner Andrew Thomas went to Parramatta Council in late 2022 proposing the pub’s building be put within Parramatta Council’s boundary and the carpark under the Hills Shire Council’s.

Unhappy with the publican’s proposed split, Parramatta Council instead voted to subsume the entire precinct into its own area, causing a tangible loss of income, through rates, to the Hills Shire Council.

“We’re trying to get the boundary changed so we’re not having to get two lots of different rates, two [development applications],” said Thomas, who was offered a record $175 million for his famous Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay in 2022.

The border between the two councils mostly follows the track of the M2 motorway, but splits off at the pub, resulting in the Winston Hotel, the Winston Hills Shopping Centre, and a small block of strata apartments all falling into the Hills Shire Council.

“They’re ratepayers, that’s income we rely on to pay for services that they use,” said Hills Shire Council general manager Michael Edgar, whose council made a counter-proposal to divide the land in a similar fashion to that proposed by Thomas. “We think there is an easy solution to solve it.