{"id":5266,"date":"2020-02-26T06:11:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T06:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=5266"},"modified":"2020-02-26T06:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T06:11:36","slug":"council-gives-outdoor-dining-fees-the-chop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/26\/council-gives-outdoor-dining-fees-the-chop\/","title":{"rendered":"Council gives outdoor dining fees the chop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle\u2019s restaurants and cafes\u00a0will no longer\u00a0pay fees for\u00a0outdoor\u00a0dining\u00a0after Council\u00a0scrapped\u00a0the charges\u00a0right across the city\u00a0last night.
\nAimed at encouraging more outdoor dining and activating\u00a0commercial centres, the\u00a0amendment to the City\u2019s Outdoor Trading Policy\u00a0will save inner-city\u00a0businesses $115\u00a0a year\u00a0for every square metre\u00a0they\u00a0host patrons\u00a0outdoors, and $65\/sqm for businesses elsewhere in Newcastle.
\n\u201cWaiving outdoor trading fees will hopefully encourage cafes, restaurants and other eateries to expand trading onto footpaths,\u201d Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.
\n\u201cWe hope this will give\u00a0the local\u00a0dining\u00a0scene\u00a0and surrounding\u00a0businesses a boost.
\n\u201cThe City is\u00a0doing more than its fair share to support businesses amid major changes to the city and the challenges posed\u00a0by online and digital competitors\u00a0to traditional businesses. Whether it be scrapping fees, offering rate relief or making better use of business rates through grants programs, we are doing all we can as a local government while remaining\u00a0financially sustainable.
\n\u201cAt current\u00a0outdoor trading\u00a0levels, small businesses\u00a0will save\u00a0a total of\u00a0around $130,000 a year, money they will no doubt invest back into their\u00a0businesses\u00a0to\u00a0making their offerings\u00a0even\u00a0more appealing\u00a0to\u00a0customers.\u201d
\nThe City issued 129 approvals for people or\u00a0organisations to\u00a0trade outdoors\u00a0in 2018\/2019,\u00a0drawing\u00a0$129,421 in revenue.
\n\"Ground-Floor-cafe-owners-inside.jpg\"Happy customers: Ground Floor cafe owners Jordan Mizrahi and Alicen Lewis<\/span><\/sup><\/strong>
\nThe abolition of fees\u00a0amounts to a\u00a0substantial\u00a0saving for restaurateurs\u00a0and couple\u00a0Jordan Mizrahi and Alicen Lewis, who own Ground\u00a0Floor Caf\u00e9\u00a0on Hunter Street\u00a0and the Basement bar on Market Street in Newcastle.
\n\u201cThis is very rewarding for businesses and very welcome as we will save around $4,000 across the two businesses,\u201d Mizrahi, 33, said.
\n\u201cWe will spend it on improving the outdoor area by buying new tables and chairs to make it more appealing to customers.\u201d
\nThe fees will be scrapped from 1 July after Council voted to scrap them at last night\u2019s ordinary meeting.
\nThis\u00a0follows a recommendation in the 2019 NSW Outdoor Dining Policy by the State\u2019s Small Business Commissioner to waive Council or State Government fees\u00a0for\u00a0businesses seeking a permit to\u00a0trade outside.
\nA notice of\u00a0motion\u00a0supported by council\u00a0at its August 2019 meeting –\u00a0to receive a report on the NSW Outdoor Dining Policy\u00a0– resulted in\u00a0last night\u2019s\u00a0amendment to\u00a0the City\u2019s 2018\u00a0Outdoor Trading Policy.
\nFees\u00a0for the installation of\u00a0permanent\u00a0footpath\u00a0markers\u00a0indicating\u00a0outdoor trading areas will remain in place.
\nThis\u00a0is\u00a0a one-off cost of $170 for new applicants\u00a0hoping to open areas not previously approved for dining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle\u2019s restaurants and cafes\u00a0will no longer\u00a0pay fees for\u00a0outdoor\u00a0dining\u00a0after Council\u00a0scrapped\u00a0the charges\u00a0right across the city\u00a0last night. Aimed at encouraging more outdoor dining and activating\u00a0commercial centres, the\u00a0amendment to the City\u2019s Outdoor Trading Policy\u00a0will save inner-city\u00a0businesses $115\u00a0a year\u00a0for every square metre\u00a0they\u00a0host patrons\u00a0outdoors, and $65\/sqm for businesses elsewhere in Newcastle. \u201cWaiving outdoor trading fees will hopefully encourage cafes, restaurants and … Continue reading “Council gives outdoor dining fees the chop”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}