Objectors are also concerned about road safety in Latrobe Parade. Heronswood is open seven days a week and its car park is often full. Objectors say an expanded restaurant will put even more pressure on parking and possibly lead to more accidents on the curving, steep Latrobe Parade, which has about five minor crashes a year.

A spokesman for several objectors, Ron Corcoran, whose property borders the existing cafe, said some neighbours were annoyed at the way the Blazeys had gone about expanding the cafe and attempting to remove the covenant.

"We discovered the Blazeys wrote to Planning Minister Justin Madden in early July seeking removal of the covenant, but we did not hear about it until September 12," he said.

"There was a consultation meeting on October 8 attended by about 65 people at which we were permitted to ask one question each while three Heronswood representatives were allowed to speak at length.

"We have also been disappointed with the way the shire has conducted the whole process, including not providing us with an agenda for the October 8 meeting and failing to answer our written questions."

Of particular concern was the shire losing all its files about various Heronswood planning applications prior to 2000 and the cafe gaining a liquor licence in 1999 without any neighbours being informed it was applying for one.

Mr Corcoran claims there have been a number of ongoing problems at Heronswood, including placement of a cafe exhaust fan too close to his property, a smelly grease trap and foul odours from the public toilets.

"You're made to feel like the bad guy if you complain about Heronswood. We acknowledge all the good work done in the name of gardening and preserving the historic property, but it is not appropriate to have a commercial operation in a residential area."

He said one long-term sticking point was that visitors parking in the Heronswood car park, which is actually a shire-owned service road, often blocked access for residents living in the six blocks on the north side of the property.

During an inspection of the car park and three access points with shire planner Allan Cowley and a shire traffic manager on Friday, Mr Corcoran said a bus that had dropped off its passengers blocked access for at least 20 minutes.

"What would happen if there was an emergency and people had to gain quick access to one of the six properties?"

During the inspection a delivery truck and several visitors' cars had all turned into the car park exit by mistake.

He said conditions being formulated by the shire would include re-marking the car park to allow bus parking where none currently existed, moving some parking bays away from Latrobe Parade and cutting the speed limit from 60 to 50kmh, having traffic marshals at major events, acoustic testing for noise levels and possible erection of sound walls to protect neighbours, and a ban on big events such as wedding receptions.

Mr Blazey told the shire an average 55 people a day went to the cafe and 44 a day visited the garden.

Mr Corcoran said one good thing to come out of the controversy was Kangerong Ward councillor Graham Pittock's idea of forming a consultative group to monitor Heronswood's expansion while the covenant removal application went through the state planning labyrinth. The committee, comprising two people from Heronswood, three residents, including two who benefit from the covenant, and Allan Cowley of the shire would meet every quarter for about 18 months.