Lake Macquarie City’s food and dining scene is set for a vibrant boost with a the local Council adopting a new 10-month pilot program called VibrantSCENE.
The program will permit outdoor dining on community land and street parking in commercial centres, along with allowing food van operators to operate on council owned community land in approved locations
"Places such as Warners bay may lend themselves to this sort of thing," Councillor Brian Adamthwaite said.
"It wont be a case of using spaces that are over used at the moment, and there is a need for parking. This is really looking at areas where there might be some latitude for taking up some space."
75 percent of businesses along a commercial strip will need to agree for the parking spaced to be used for the purpose of out door dining, before a businesses application is approved.
As part of the trial businesses are encouraged to make temporary placemaking improvements to the dedicated sites by adding fairy lights, outdoor gas heaters and furniture or music to their setups.
Danielle Mayes and Natalie Brown, Owners of Tangerine Events said we’re excited to participate in this program and growing the Lake Mac Food Truck Crawl. We are constantly receiving interest from other vendors and this pilot program will allow for more food van operators to participate.
Council will at all times be following the Australian and NSW Government COVID-19 guidelines in establishing these areas and businesses must have appropriate COVID Safe measures in place. Council will continue to work with the operators to ensure the safety of businesses and customers.
During the trial program, Council will be asking for feedback from businesses and the community to help inform long-term policy decisions and future programming.
The VibrantSCENE program is free of charge. Local operators are encouraged to apply by completing an expression of interest form online at lakemac.com.au/vibrantscene.
