A RAFT of changes to Lake Macquarie City Council's policy around food trucks, street stalls and events on council land are designed to make it easier for small businesses to do business.
The council is reviewing its Local Approvals Policy, and has made some changes after COVID-19 saw an increase in mobile vendors like food trucks and footpath trading embraced by the public.
The changes are designed to provide more clarity around those types of trading, the council's integrated planning manager Wesley Hain said.
"The changes are twofold, there was no formalised policy position we had and through the Vibrant Scene program [introduced during COVID-19], we did notice particularly during the pandemic that more people wanted to operate those food truck businesses, and our community liked the flexibility of extra dining options," he said.
"We do want to make our town centres a bit more vibrant and lively to encourage trading.
"Whether that's the display and selling of goods, dining out on public areas like footpaths or footway trading, it was already happening and we were at times getting some complaints, so we wanted to provide clear guidance about where, when and under what circumstances business owners can do that."
Under the draft proposal, businesses won't require consent to display goods for sale on the footpath, provided they comply with the rules.
The policy that previously required food trucks to move after 15 minutes without a customer could be scrapped to allow them four hours in a particular spot.
Their trading hours could also be extended to 10pm.
The policy is on public exhibition until October 10.
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