New outdoor alfresco dining areas will be created in the main streets of Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and Point Cook, under plans being developed by Wyndham council.
The council today announced it is increasing efforts to allow dining on footpaths, streets, parking spaces and pop-up alfresco areas, to help local eateries operate in a COVID-safe way as Melbourne opens up again.
Wyndham’s director of city design and liveability, Ludo Campbell-Reid, said a range of council initiatives have been developed, with a goal of supporting businesses by offering additional outdoor space to trade from.
Mr Campbell-Reid said an additional 1938 square metres of outdoor dining space would be created across the municipality, allowing for an extra 700 patrons to be served at local businesses at each sitting.
“We’re also working on a series of pop up activations, which will add an extra 1484 square metres of dining space across Wyndham,” he said.
Mr Campbell-Reid said funding from the state government’s Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package would help the council to deliver a number of projects to support businesses.
“This includes free, streamlined permitting processes to support and guide businesses to expand their outdoor space by using council-managed land,” he said.
“This includes footpaths, streets, car parks and open space.”
One of the initiatives being developed is the West End Experience – a concept developed in response to feedback from businesses in Werribee’s CBD.
“We’re still going through the consultation process with many businesses in the area, but what we’ve heard from many is that they would be interested in extending their outdoor dining offering onto the street,” Mr Campbell-Reid said.
“The plan, which is still being developed, would see an outdoor alfresco dining area extending out onto the road of Watton Street between Bridge Hotel and Wedge Street Piazza.
“This will be delivered as part of a series of one-day activations, with the potential to build to a multi-day event.
“No single business would own the space, and all local businesses are invited to participate.”
Mr Campbell-Reid said that earlier this year, when restrictions were eased, the council installed six “parklets” through a pilot program which provided additional outdoor dining space for patrons in Werribee and Hoppers Crossing.
“Through that process, we took feedback from local businesses on how they were used and what they offered,” he said.
“In response to this feedback, we’ve made changes to the design and use of these parklets, and their placement is being guided by the local business community.
“Three parklets will be installed in Hoppers Junction in November and up to three units will be available for interested businesses in the Werribee city centre.”
He said the council was also planning to create new outdoor dining precincts in the Point Cook Town Centre and Soho Village.
“This is in the form of removable, engineered, in-road bollards – a key step for those precincts to be able to utilise a section of the council-managed street to develop flexible outdoor dining options,” Mr Campbell-Reid said.
Wyndham council will also provide businesses with the free use of outdoor dining infrastructure, including four alfresco pods and eight dining kits, with expressions of interest via an online Temporary Commercial Use of Public Space permit process.
Details: www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/outdoor
