Shire Lobby Group Demands Council Legislate Cushion Caps Before Beds Disappear Altogether

Sandy Shores | Editor-in-Chief | Sutherland Shire Gazette

15 September 2025

Following last week’s Sutherland Shire Gazette exposé on a Caringbah husband forced to enforce nightclub-style “one in, one out” rules for decorative cushions, angry locals have banded together to demand systemic reform.

Their newly formed lobby group, The Decorative Cushion Action Network (DeCAN), is now rumoured to be calling on Sutherland Shire Council to introduce strict cushion density legislation, warning that without action “entire beds will be lost to soft furnishings by Christmas.”

The proposed framework mirrors Council’s infamous floor space ratio (FSR) rules for housing, capping households at three cushions per bed square metre. “It’s about livability,” argued DeCAN spokesperson Trent Forrester, a Menai father of two who claims he hasn’t seen his actual doona since Easter.

“We don’t let developers overbuild and block out the sun. So why are we allowing unchecked scatter pillow subdivisions that smother entire sleeping surfaces?” he asked, waving a sequinned cushion “the size of a car tyre” as Exhibit A.

Council chambers are already said to be divided. One councillor floated a Cushion Contribution Levy for households exceeding limits, while another proposed “heritage status” for original 1990s Laura Ashley florals.

Retailers are pushing back hard. A Temple & Webster spokesperson warned that “crippling cushion growth would devastate the local soft furnishings economy and possibly break Instagram.”

Public sentiment, however, is shifting. Residents desperate for regulation say legislation is the only way to reclaim their beds and their sanity. As one exhausted Kirrawee man wrote in his submission: “Please… just let us see the doona again.”