A MORE vibrant nightlife and better business opportunities versus supporting fixed businesses was the dilemma councillors grappled with on the future treatment of mobile food vendors.
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Orange City Council voted on Tuesday night to formulate an approvals policy for vendors amid complaints from permanent food outlets regarding a loss of trade.
Food vendors approved for community events also complained about other vendors setting up outside and taking trade.
Currently, the council issues two-year approvals for mobile vendors to operate on public land, while a five-year approval to sell on public streets costs $203.
Coffee vans can sell outside the CBD provided they do not sell within 100 metres of an existing business – they can also trade at many of Orange’s public facilities and parks.
Deputy mayor Joanne McRae believed a policy would create more opportunities for small business, particularly at sports carnivals and events located far from fixed restaurants and cafes, as well as industrial areas.
”If we’re looking at the opportunities to perhaps provide an evening economy and have night life opportunities, most of the places in Orange close at 9pm and you can’t get much to eat,” she said.
“We have the opportunity to look at mobile food vans, which perhaps meet that demand, that perhaps encourages Orange to be – maybe not 24/7, we’ve heard that’s not great – but perhaps a later economy in appropriate parts of town.”
Councillor Jeff Whitton agreed the move was positive for business.
“We do have itinerants who have been so successful that they’ve put shops in the main street, so it goes both ways,” he said.
But other councillors were concerned mobile vendors did not face the same regulations and costs as a business paying CBD rates.
Councillor Scott Munro said vans needed to scrutinised about where their food was prepared.
“Is it made at home and is it approved? That sort of thing,” he said.
“You put your heart into your premises and that’s your world and for a vendor to steal your [sales] is heartbreaking and at the end of the day, you go.”
Mayor Reg Kidd pointed to the former Davo’s Diner in Summer Street, which was a magnet for late-night fights.
“It moved to a spot with better lighting, then you could see the fights,” he said.