How The Block is charming locals in Charming Street

EXCLUSIVE:

Even before its 19th season has hit screens, The Block is drawing headlines.

Stories about car parking grievances and banned coffees in Charming Street, Hampton East, suggest the locals are on edge.

One story by the Daily Mail even suggested the site was cursed because judge Shaynna Blaze nearly fell over in stilettos on a building site.

But if all publicity is a good publicity in the Reality TV genre, executive producer Julian Cress doesn’t seem too worried.

Setting the record straight for TV Tonight, Cress says relationships with the locals are amicable.

“I would say that I know 50 of the neighbours well enough to say ‘Good morning’, and I know their names,” he said.

“99% of them are really happy that we’re here. I can think of two neighbours, one who doesn’t like us being here and another one who started a Facebook Page … but even he doesn’t say that he’s unhappy about it. He just wants to report on everything that’s happening. So, the relationship with the neighbours is really great. Overall, 98 out of 100 people is a pretty good strike rate.”

The Block has attracted headlines regarding neighbourhood friction all the way back its first season in Bondi, 2003. But the speed of construction is considerably faster than conventional buiilding sites of the same scale.

“I had a letter from a neighbour yesterday telling me how grateful she was that we were here, because of the four storey building with the 80 apartments and the 80 more cars that would have been here,” says Cress. “…which would have taken four years to build if we hadn’t done what we’re doing.

“So a lot of neighbours get that and they’re really appreciative. We’re only building for three months.”

But not everybody is happy, with one local recently objecting to a site McCafe which has been temporarily constructed at one Charming Street house.

While selling coffees would entail a council permit, one resident was unhappy free coffees for locals could set a precedent for commercial enterprises to sidestep permits in residential zones.

“The council came down and said, ‘We’re terribly sorry to have to say this, but you can no longer serve coffee to the neighbours for free.’ That was a shame. I mean, that’s not a great outcome,” Cress lamented.

“Then we had to say to the other neighbours, ‘We’re really sorry, we want to give you a free coffee, but we’re not allowed to.’ So we sent them all a bottle of wine, and said, ‘We’re sorry, we’ve only got a few more weeks to go. We’ll invite you all over for a drink and a free coffee inside The Block when we are allowed to.’

“That was turned into a story about how we’re ‘doomed’ because nothing’s going right for us, which I find hilarious!

“Stories about parking and things… it’s not unusual when we get a lot of tradesmen turning up, that parking gets a little bit harder around the area for three months. I understand that frustration of some neighbours to not have the parking that they’re used to. And I sympathise entirely. There’s not a lot we can do except try and manage it and encourage our people to park elsewhere.”

Meanwhile filming only has another three weeks remaining, ahead of it again drive Nine’s primetime schedule.

When five new couples are thrown into the renovation pressure-cooker, all for the edification of Reality TV viewers, you can really expect the headlines to roll.