The Victorian Government has outlined funding and support for the hospitality industry to serve customers outdoors as COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed. We're working to facilitate this quickly so that restaurants, cafes and bars in Stonnington can serve as many customers as possible heading into summer.
Following feedback from our business community our immediate focus is to deliver two key pieces of work that will unlock outdoor trading space for businesses:
- A fast tracked process for hospitality businesses that already have footpath trading in place to extend this to neighbouring properties if they are vacant or with the approval of neighbouring business owners.
- A process for hospitality businesses to apply to use car parking out the front of their property for dining where safe or practical to do this.
We're also seeking commitments from Victorian Government bodies such as the Department of Transport and the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to free up similar state based time frames for approvals.
We're also looking into opportunities to create 'parklet' style communal gathering spaces in precincts across Stonnington to enable people to meet, gather and relax.
Given the expected use of parks, gardens and open spaces this summer at this point we're not looking into granting business use of these areas, we'll review this in January 2021 as we have a better understanding of what COVID Normal means. These areas will be activated in other ways to encourage take away from nearby venues.
We're hosting an online information session this Thursday afternoon (8 October) from 4.30-5.30pm to explain this and other outdoor dining opportunities for businesses. This is an informal drop-in session with the opportunity to ask questions and seek information, register here to get login details.
Interested businesses can also:
