Regional Victorian restaurants prepare to re-open

Hospitality businesses in regional Victoria may be permitted to re-open soon, in accordance with the Victorian Government's "roadmap" out of stage 3 lockdown.

As per current government regulations, once the average number of COVID cases in regional Victoria are at an average of five or less for 14 consecutive days, outdoor dining will be enabled.

This will come as enormous relief for restaurant and café owners.

Like so many businesses in regional Victoria, Sangria Spanish Tapas Bar in Bendigo was significantly impacted by the lockdown.

Tapas bar owner Ann-Marie Davis, is focusing on making the most out of outdoor dining when it finally comes into play, despite having to still jump some hurdles with regard to street dining regulations.

"What will get in the way of that are those regulations for street dining. There is a range of requirements, and it does differ depending on the location of the business," she told ABC news.

"Obviously we need to look at an approach that reduces red tape, we need timely communication to hospitality businesses regarding their requirements so that we can get applying for planning and marketing.

"We need a quick approval process for any application process that they put forward and a waiver of some of those usual requirements for street dining, such as hoarding or signing." 

Ms Davis has an alleyway beside her business where she is hoping she will be permitted to set up tables to run her dining business outdoors.

As much as outdoor dining will allow eateries to open up again, there will be density limits, meaning groups will be capped at 10. 

The City of Greater Bendigo says it’s looking into ways that they can maximise patronage.

The city’s acting CEO Andrew Cooney said they are looking around the world to see what solutions there may be. Many ideas are being explored such as parklets, blocking off streets and outdoor dining hubs. The council has also decided to waive fees for outdoor permits in their June budget. 

"We've now been looking at what are some innovative ways to accelerate this and open it up even further albeit in a controlled way that still creates safe space for the public and enables social distancing," he said. 

“We may be able to have some dining hubs. We've set a team a challenge that there is nothing off the table, but we've got a cross-sectional team working on it because there are traffic issues, parking issues, health issues, liquor licensing issues to take into consideration."