The private sector – like Coledale RSL – knows how to feed the public’s hunger for food trucks. Can Wollongong City Council get a slice of the action? Photo: Dione David.
Imagine taking the kids for a wander down to your local beach or park on a Friday night.
A couple of regular food trucks are there, so there’s something for everyone – even the picky eaters.
You run into friends and neighbours, roll out a picnic blanket and relax.
That’s the vision behind Wollongong City Council’s mobile food vending policy, but despite a unanimous vote to adopt the policy at the July council meeting, it’s still a long way from reality.
Although the policy allows food trucks to trade on some council-owned sites, such as Bellambi Harbour, Thomas Dalton Park and Dapto Skate Park, trucks may not begin to set up before 7 am and must be packed up and closed down by 7 pm.
They may not set up any seating or signage.
They are not permitted to operate for more than five hours at any one location, and each location may have only one vendor at a time, although vendors may attend multiple locations in one day.
Councillor Janice Kershaw said the limitations undermined the purpose of the policy – to create a place for people to come together and relax in a shared space.
“How uninspiring,” Cr Kershaw said.
“This is a bland, boring, vanilla policy. We get worn down sometimes by staff and bureaucracy and I think sometimes they hope it will just go away.”
Councillor Mithra Cox said the possibility of food trucks was first brought to the council in 2017 as part of a push to stimulate the night-time economy.
She said the limitations on opening hours put a stop to that.
“They’re only allowed to open during daylight hours, so essentially they’re only going to be coffee vans,” she said.
“It’s just rules for the sake of having rules, and I think we can improve it.”
Councillor Cameron Walters agreed, and said the council lagged behind private enterprise in the space.
“The Helensburgh Golf Club has food truck evenings and people travel for them,” he said.
“We’re coming to the end of our term and I’m glad we could get to this point, but the policy has a lot of room for improvement.”
In the debate councillors pointed to other private businessses that ran food trucks succesfully, such as service stations, and other cities that had a thriving food truck scene, such as Perth, and developing nations.
Councillor Dom Figliomini said that on a recent trip to Perth he was impressed with the way food truck gatherings brought the community together.
“It’s not rocket science,” he said.
“It’s very easy to do; we just need the regulations in place for it to happen.”
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