News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[Wayno]

The road to Damascus needs re-paving...

[Llessur2002]

[rev]

What an absolute joke this Council is.

If a city cafe can't manage to attract customers, during a period where there's more people now living(and working) in the city it self , that suggests that there is a problem with that business and how it's operated.
But rather then bite the bullet and accept they need to improve and up their own game, the typical old Adelaide establishment has found a convenient scape goat in the food truck operators.

It was the same story with the Croquet club.
A bunch of shitty as pubs and bars that offered nothing new to patrons bitching and moaning because a limited event venue was drawing big crowds.

It's like a car manufacturer who keeps making the same model for decades without changing anything and then complaining that people aren't buying enough of is his old product when a new product from a competitor emerges.

A few small steps forward with the previous council, and the new council is almost tripping over its own feet trying to take 500 steps backwards.

Someone remind these people they aren't another average suburban council.

[mshagg]

This is why Adelaide can't have nice things.

How about some of these existing businesses quit their whinging and lift their game. The food truck scene was starting to become an attraction for the city, but now it's disappearing off our streets due to politics and scare mongering. Same goes for the Royal Croquet Club, it's ridiculous and damaging all the hard work done to improve Adelaide as a destination and place to live.

Don't get me wrong many of these existing businesses do a wonderful job and a massive vital part of the city, though there are some businesses that seem to blame everything around them and not realise that it's their own business model that is the problem.

P.S what is the point of a public consultation??!

I'm curious to see the outcome of the 'community consultation'. I highly doubt the outcome would have been a reduction in food trucks, unless the participants were conveniently restaurant owners.

It came out of nowhere, seemingly after the old money landlords had a meeting with the council on Monday.

No where, at any time, had anyone floated the prospect of cutting numbers to 10 at any time. Im actually speechless.

Weatherall is pissed, hope he can find a way to stick it to the deputy lord mayor.

[monotonehell]

Just as an aside - does anyone know what (if) the food truck operators have to pay when they operate in other council areas? Because they often set up outside the CBD.

Do they have to pay annual fees for every council area they want to operate within?

[rev]

This is why Adelaide can't have nice things.

How about some of these existing businesses quit their whinging and lift their game. The food truck scene was starting to become an attraction for the city, but now it's disappearing off our streets due to politics and scare mongering. Same goes for the Royal Croquet Club, it's ridiculous and damaging all the hard work done to improve Adelaide as a destination and place to live.

Don't get me wrong many of these existing businesses do a wonderful job and a massive vital part of the city, though there are some businesses that seem to blame everything around them and not realise that it's their own business model that is the problem.

P.S what is the point of a public consultation??!

I'm curious to see the outcome of the 'community consultation'. I highly doubt the outcome would have been a reduction in food trucks, unless the participants were conveniently restaurant owners.

It came out of nowhere, seemingly after the old money landlords had a meeting with the council on Monday.

No where, at any time, had anyone floated the prospect of cutting numbers to 10 at any time. Im actually speechless.

Weatherall is pissed, hope he can find a way to stick it to the deputy lord mayor.

The best way to stick it to these anti development anti progress dinosaurs who struggle outside of their closed circles is to abolish the council and make them all redundant.

[Wayno]

The best way to stick it to these anti development anti progress dinosaurs who struggle outside of their closed circles is to abolish the council and make them all redundant.

Unfortunately I think you are correct. What a shambles.

Weatherall is pissed...

How do we know Weatherall is pissed?

[SouthAussie94]

Presumably, the limit of 10 food trucks applies to council land. If a private land owner (ie: one of the Uni's, a carpark owner or the State Government) chose to allow trucks onto their land, would the restrictions apply to these trucks? Could this be a way to work around the restrictions?

[SouthAussie94]

Weatherall is pissed...

How do we know Weatherall is pissed?

From his Facebook page:

Extremely disappointing that the Adelaide City Council has failed to back the Lord Mayor's position on food trucks in CBD. We will see what our options are and how we, as the Government, can support these young entrepreneurs in the city.

[Nathan]

It came out of nowhere, seemingly after the old money landlords had a meeting with the council on Monday.

Was this reported anywhere?

[Llessur2002]

Was this reported anywhere?

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 4b90955885

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.

[mshagg]

It came out of nowhere, seemingly after the old money landlords had a meeting with the council on Monday.

Was this reported anywhere?

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 7584700072

The change in direction on food trucks came after several of the city’s biggest landowners met with council representatives on Monday.

[Llessur2002]

^ or what he said

[Llessur2002]

Hopefully the State Government might be able to weigh in on this one...

Weatherill threatens to intervene on food trucks

Premier Jay Weatherill is threatening to step in and override Adelaide City Council after an "extremely disappointing" decision on food trucks last night.



The council last night voted to limit the number of food trucks allowed to operate in the city to 10 on any given day.

The 10-truck cap, passed by the council last night after being proposed by deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad, will apply to food trucks before 6pm and not during “special events” such as food truck festival Fork on the Road.

Weatherill told InDaily the State Government was weighing its options on how to intervene.

“(It is) extremely disappointing that the Adelaide City Council has failed to back the Lord Mayor’s position on food trucks in the CBD,” he said.

“We will see what our options are and how we, as a Government, can support these young entrepreneurs in the city.”

Weatherill told reporters at a press conference this morning that: “We’re going to look carefully at this and see if there are any steps that the South Australian Government can take”.

“I don’t see why the council thinks they have a role in actually backing one business over another in the city,” he said.

“I don’t know why on earth they want to stop entry level businesses, often young people, people without much capital, getting a foothold and then going on and actually building a bigger business.

“This is the sort of innovation that we want to see that actually creates vibrancy in the city but also leads to bricks-and-mortar businesses.

“This is the sort of thing we should be encouraging, not discouraging.”

The new restriction on the fledgling industry is in addition to increased food truck licence fees and reduced licence numbers agreed to as a “compromise” by the council’s economic and community development committee last week.

The “compromise” also included an olive branch to the industry, allowing six food trucks to operate on city squares at any time.

Weatherill took to social media last week to praise the council for that original decision, which he described as striking “a far better balance than the restrictions that were proposed” by the council in August.

But last night’s surprise additional restriction evaporated that good will.

The decision is also seen as an embarrassment for Lord Mayor Martin Haese, who last week confessed to a conversion in support of the food trucks industry.

However, Abiad argued at last night’s meeting that the cap would have no practical impact on mobile operators because a maximum of eight trucks are ever seen on Adelaide’s city streets anyway.

He said the only difference the restriction would make was to a flawed “perception” of the food trucks industry held by fixed city businesses.

“There is a perceived image out there with our ratepayers where they feel there are 25 or 30 trucks lurking about,” he told InDaily after the meeting last night.

“We need to make that clear that is not the case.

“Unfortunately, because it’s such a physical and also a very tangible program … I think that (concerns) some of the businesses that are not doing as well in the city.

“Mobile food trucks have an impact on businesses in the city of Adelaide – I’m not going to sit here and say they don’t; I think they do.

“But … there is a perception out there that there is a much larger impact (than there actually is).”
Food trucks “dream … not trending in the right way”

Despite Abiad’s assurances though, Fork on the Road operator Joe Noone told InDaily the decision had “disillusioned” him.

Noone said he did not yet know what impact the restriction would have on mobile vendors, but that his “dream” – for Adelaide to be the country’s food truck capital – might no-longer be realistic.

“I don’t know what it means … but I should have seen this coming, is how I feel about it,” he said.

“I might steer clear of policy discussions, from now on, about food trucks.

“I’ll stop worrying or dreaming or being ambitious about Adelaide becoming the … food truck capital of Australia.

“It’s probably not trending in the right way.”

Noone said the decision sent a poor message for the future of food trucks in Adelaide.

“Food trucks are a symbol,” he said.

“Food trucks have been a positive symbol for Adelaide.

“What does (last night’s decision) say to people thinking of getting into the industry?

“What does it say to people who are thinking of continuing?”

Last week’s decision to negotiate a joint funding deal with the State Government to upgrade and extend Frome Street bikeway was also passed by the council last night, without further debate.

http://indaily.com.au/news/2015/10/28/w ... od-trucks/

(nice new InDaily website by the way...)

[Waewick]

just get rid of it FFS- we don't need these types running the CBD