By Alesha Capone
Wyndham businesses have welcomed the support they are receiving from residents as Melbourne emerges from pandemic lockdown.
Committee for Wyndham chief executive Barbara McLure said it was terrific to see people shopping and eating in Watton Street, Werribee last Thursday.
“I think there is a sense that people have an understanding that local businesses did it really hard and it’s very important to support local businesses now,” she said.
The Park Werribee owner Nick Christou said the hotel received more than 500 calls within two days last week after Premier Daniel Andrews announced that eateries could host sit-down meals again.
Mr Christou said he and his staff were looking forward to seeing their regular customers, and working with the local community.
He said The Park’s dinner sessions had been almost completely booked up, for the first fortnight after re-opening.
Renay Ahmed, from the Wyndham Cache café and deli and LT’s Egg Farm in Werribee South, said both businesses have implemented COVIDSafe plans.
She said the café was encouraging customers to have picnics in its outdoor area, by ordering grazing boxes and drinks to enjoy on the lawn.
“The response has been phenomenal, as soon as the Premier’s announcement happened, the phones were ringing off the hook,” Ms Ahemd said.
Pacific Werribee centre manager Patricia Gardiner said the shopping centre was pleased to welcome back traders which were closed during the pandemic.
“While we all continue to adhere to our COVIDSafe practices, we are thrilled to be able to welcome back customers and a great number of our retailers who were able to reopen this week – the centre community is certainly beaming with positivity,” Ms Gardiner said.
The state manager for Cedar Woods said business was booming at the Williams Landing Shopping Centre and town centre.
“It has been so encouraging to see the town centre and shopping centre open, albeit in a Covid-safe way,” he said.
“We have assisted our hospitality operators by installing heating, lighting and blinds and they are now taking bookings for indoor and alfresco dining.
“We’re working closely with our tenants, as well as council, to safely increase foot traffic and expand the external dining area to help businesses get back on track.”
Simon Barbar, from The Jolly Miller in Williams Landing, said that “things are going great”.
“Everything is slowly getting back to normal, as much as it can right now,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of community support since reopening, just a shame there are such strict seating restrictions.
“Everyone has a really positive spirit, they’re happy to have things back to the way they use to be.”
Nick Truong from Luxe Nails in Williams Landing said:
“The response from the community has been amazing.
“We thought people wouldn’t come back after the lockdown, but they did and it has been a really busy couple of days.
“There have been some challenges with the spacing and timing restrictions, but everything is good.
“The shopping centre has been amazing and really supportive of small businesses.
” They really heard us out and helped through a tough time.
“I wouldn’t have survived if the landlord wasn’t as understanding.”
Kathryn Josevski, from The Ellsim Group in Point Cook, said the business has been “inundated with calls and messages” from local businesses, about opening up in a Covid-safe way.
“There has been so much confusion regarding what is really required in order for businesses to open and best practice as well as the frustration that businesses are feeling trying to get straight answers from DHHS and sometimes the advice they give contradicts good Worksafe practices,” Ms Josevski said.
“A lot of businesses think that being Covid ready is as easy as buying bottles of disinfectant and wiping down surfaces when it is really so much more.
“We are working with a lot of commercial businesses who will be welcoming their office staff back on-site soon, in order to make sure that OH&S are across what ‘Covid Safe’ really means in the real world.
“We need businesses to ensure they are ticking all the boxes so we can avoid the scenes from the midnight Kmart openings and avoid having a return to lockdowns as that will wipe out the businesses who have managed to hang on and re-open.
“We are blessed in the Wyndham area to have a close-knit small business community where we are all banding together to try and get open and stay open and we would hate to have small businesses demonised purely because they haven’t met the guidelines. ”
Wyndham council last week announced it would increase efforts to help eateries extend their meal areas onto footpaths, streets, parking spaces and pop-up alfresco areas, by creating an additional 1938 square metres of outdoor dining space across the municipality.
Wyndham city design and liveability director Ludo Campbell-Reid said the council was also planning the West End Experience, an outdoor dining area in Watton Street between Bridge Hotel and Wedge Street Piazza, as a series of one-day activations with the potential to build to a multi-day event.
In addition, three “parklets” will be installed in Hoppers Junction and outdoor dining precincts created in the Point Cook Town Centre and Soho Village.
