Auburn council will meet to consider urgency motion after entire street in Lidcombe was closed for extravagant ceremony

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A Sydney council will meet this week to consider an urgency motion after its deputy mayor closed an entire street in the city’s inner west for his extravagant wedding.

The millionaire property developer and Auburn’s deputy mayor, Salim Mehajer, hired four helicopters to land in a local park – his fiancee, Aysha, travelled with a motorcade of motorbikes and luxury cars worth $50m – when they married in a lavish ceremony in Lidcombe on Saturday.

Residents of Frances Street, Lidcombe, were told on Tuesday in a letter-box drop that all vehicles had to be removed from the street on Saturday or they would be towed at their expense.

An Auburn councillor, Irene Simms, said her council colleague’s action was not authorised. He had permission only for a partial road closure.

The way residents were treated was embarrassing for the council.

“A lot of people are very unhappy about the letter that was boxed to local residents, which is the biggest concern,” she said.

“People are very unhappy for being held up by traffic. The people that live near the park [are unhappy] because they think they should have been told it would be landing.”

Simms said residents had launched a petition calling for Mehajer to be sacked.

Residents had presumed the letter-box notification was sent by council because there was no name on the document.

“It just says ‘management’. There was a mobile number given [on the leaflet] and if you Google it the number is Queen Street Custom Car Hire,” she said on Monday.

“One of the residents rang and was told they weren’t at liberty to tell him why the road was being closed.”

One of Mehajer’s groomsmen, Ibrahim Azam, said everyone was happy with how the day went, including the police.

“The police were quite good – we had told everyone,” Azam told News Corp.

“Salim’s that type of person he likes to enjoy himself and give others that kind of experience as well.”

Police closed Frances Street temporarily on Saturday over concerns for public safety after a significant number of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians spilled on to the road.

“The matter is subject to an ongoing police investigation,” a NSW police spokesman said.

Mehajer, 29, told KIIS radio station he “doesn’t think they’ve done anything wrong”.

“They can investigate all they like, I’ve got nothing to hide,” he said on Monday.

Auburn council will meet on Wednesday night to consider an emergency motion about the matter.