City of Sydney extends fee waivers for outdoor dining until 2025

City of Sydney has now approved the extension of fee waivers for Alfresco dining until 30th June 2025 with Council recognising that outdoor dining supports local businesses, brings life to high streets and fosters dining and shopping precincts as destinations.

Since the start of the pandemic, the City of Sydney supported more than 600 businesses to trade on footpaths and roadways as part of our alfresco dining program.

Council worked closely with the NSW Government to introduce the alfresco dining program and waived outdoor dining fees at the end of 2020.

Their fast-tracked application process made it easier for businesses to be part of the program and earlier this year extended the waiving of outdoor dining fees until 30th June 2023.

Council notes “we have seen our communities enjoy the extension of these spaces at our recent Sydney Streets events and we believe the reclamation of road space for outdoor dining will continue to revive the city this summer.

“There’s a continuing need to encourage outdoor dining – to support our businesses and give people another way to socialise and enjoy being out in the city, safely. With that in mind, we will investigate locations where the footway can be permanently extended into road space for outdoor dining.”

Cafes, restaurants, bars and cultural venues can apply for an outdoor dining permit on the footpath or on the road space outside their venue, so long as they meet the criteria outlined in our outdoor dining guidelines.