Adelaide City Council cuts the number of daytime CBD food trucks to just 10
THE State Government will look at how it can support young entrepreneurs, after Adelaide City Council decided to slash the number of food trucks allowed to operate in the CBD during the daytime.
Under the new rules, passed by the council on Tuesday, only 10 food trucks will be allowed to operate in the city before 6pm, except on special event days such as the Fringe Festival or major sporting fixtures.
The surprise move comes after a council committee last week recommended reducing the number of permits to 30 — including 20 for regular operators, five fee-free permits for entrepreneurs and five half-price permits for bricks-and-mortar businesses — from the current limit of 40, and increase fees to $2500 annually.
Premier Jay Weatherill took to Facebook on Wednesday morning to express his frustration at the decision.
“Extremely disappointing that the Adelaide City Council has failed to back the Lord Mayor’s position on food trucks in CBD,” he wrote.
“We will see what our options are and how we, as the Government, can support these young entrepreneurs in the city.”
Mr Weatherill later said the Government was considering its options to support the food truck industry and he was disappointed councillors had “rolled” their own Lord Mayor.
“We’re going to look carefully at this and see whether there are any steps that the South Australian Government can take,” he said. “I don’t know why the council thinks that they have a role in actually backing one business over another in the city.
“This is the kind of innovation that we want to see, that creates vibrancy.
“Also, it leads to bricks and mortar businesses. Burger Theory started as a food van.
“This is the sort of thing we should be encouraging, not discouraging.”
Deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad on Tuesday successfully proposed slashing the number of food trucks allowed in the city during daylight hours to just 10.
“There is a massive perception issue around (the) impact (of food trucks),” he said.
“By doing this (change) we have eliminated the fear that there will be 30 food trucks travelling around the city at once.
“I have seen the (council’s) data and there are rarely more than six or eight food trucks in the city at once but it is about dealing with the perception.”
The change in direction on food trucks came after several of the city’s biggest landowners met with council representatives on Monday.
Lord Mayor Martin Haese said he advocated for the committee’s previous position at the meeting but councillors supported the changes to slash the number of food trucks in the city during the daytime at Tuesday’s council meeting.
He said councillors were within their rights to change a committee recommendation.
Commercial lawyer Greg Griffin spoke at the meeting representing prominent city landowners — including the Polites Group, the Karidis Corporation, the Makris Group and others — and raised the idea of limiting the number of food trucks allowed to operate during lunch hours.
“They (bricks-and-mortar businesses) are struggling big time,” he said.
“Lots of these tenants are struggling to pay their rent.”
City cafe owner Talia Wyman said she was considering walking away from her premises near Hindmarsh Square because food trucks had such low overheads and could undercut her prices.
She said she paid nearly $90,000 in rent and could not drop her prices in response to food trucks, whose operators presently paid between $100 and $1000 in permit fees to trade for 10 days through to six months during the summer.
“You keep talking about supporting young entrepreneurs. Well, I’m one of them,” Ms Wyman said.
“I want to support Adelaide city, but it needs to support me, too.”
The move is expected to cause a backlash from food truck operators who believed the policy debate was largely settled last week, and many of whom would effectively be locked out of the city’s lunchtime trade.
The new rules would apply until July 2019.
Joe Noone, who founded the food truck festival Fork on the Road, said he was disappointed with the last-minute rule changes.
“We had negotiated in good faith and then we come here tonight and it seems like politics has gone and bitten us on the bum,” he said.
“There’s this myth that persists that food trucks don’t work hard or pay overheads and it’s just not true.”
Mr Noone said the changes went too far.
The introduction of food trucks in 2011, as part of the council’s Splash Adelaide program, has been credited as making the city a more vibrant place but bricks-and-mortar businesses have complained the fee structure for mobile operators has been too low and unfair.
A proposal to defer the food truck policy debate was defeated on the council floor.
Councillor Phillip Martin said the latest changes to the food truck rules, after several proposals and a community consultation process, was “policy on the run”.
The council also passed a plan to investigate and negotiation with the State Government for a multimillion-dollar fix for Frome St, which could cost up to $11.5 million, without debate.
A proposal to investigate closing Ebenezer Pl to vehicle traffic during certain hours of the day was also supported by the council.
But Cr Abiad’s plan to scrap outdoor dining fees next financial year, was held up, with the final decision on the proposal to be made after council staff prepare a policy report on the matter.
“The council is supportive of waiving of outdoor dining fees but the policy needs to come back to councillors (before being approved),” he said.
Source: Adelaide Now, Anthony Templeton, 28th October 2015
Originally published as: Adelaide City Council cuts the number of daytime CBD food trucks to just 10
