A full rental waiver for all Prahran Market traders for the 14 days that many were forced to close due to isolation requirements was unanimously endorsed by City of Stonnington Councillors at their meeting on Monday 2 August.
City of Stonnington Mayor, Cr Kate Hely, said this is a use of Council's COVID Recovery Reserve set aside in the 2021-22 budget.
"Our iconic Prahran Market has been an important community hub through lockdowns and restrictions, offering people a local place to access fresh food with a sense of community and connection.
"This $180,000+ support package covers the rent of all traders in the market for the two weeks that many were impacted by isolation requirements. This was an incredibly hard time for the entire Prahran Market and we're very pleased to be able to provide this direct support as landlord.
"It's the second use of the $1.89m COVID recovery reserve that we set aside in our 2021-22 budget to provide targeted support to our community and businesses, following a number of concessions that we included in our rates for the year.
"Please get out and support the Prahran Market and all our local businesses as much as possible," said Cr Hely.
An outreach service has also been established to ensure traders at Prahran Market have information on the Victorian Government's COVID-19 support packages.
