New DRAFT Mobile Food Trading Policy

The Town has recently undertaken a review of the current policy to provide improved flexibility to support mobile food traders who make a positive contribution to the Town, through the activation of public places. As a result the Town of Mosman Park have endorsed a new draft Mobile Food Trading Policy at the Ordinary Council Meeting held on the 25^th August 2020. Council minutes and associated documents can be found here

The main differences between the new draft Mobile Food Trading Policy and the existing Temporary Food Trading Policy are as follows:

• The current policy incorporates a lot of detail that does not need to be included, as it relates to matters that are already covered under Local Laws and Environmental Health Legislation. These references have been removed from the new policy.
• Guidelines for ‘Traders Attending Events’ have been removed from the new policy. Mobile food trading at events is already regulated under the wider umbrella of outdoor event approvals. A separate policy for this one aspect of outdoor events is not required.
• The new policy contains guidelines for two types of mobile food traders – Itinerant Traders and Fixed Traders.
• The current policy provides prescriptive rules relating to things such as operating hours and trading restrictions. At the present time these prescriptive rules do not add value and can be included as conditions of food trading permits, on a case by case basis. Therefore, the prescriptive rules have been removed.
• The existing policy includes a number of provisions that regulate competition between traders. It is not the role of the Town to manage the competitive environment that exists between businesses; therefore these provisions have been removed.
• The new policy sets out a process for identifying and allocating Designated Sites to mobile food traders, which is open and flexible. It provides for permits to be issued for up to three years at the discretion of the CEO.
• The policy provides the Town with the option to undertake an Expression of Interest campaign for Fixed Traders in areas of high interest, however, this is not mandated.
• Under the new policy, applications for mobile food trading permits will be assessed against a set of criteria, which include the extent to which an applicant will contribute to the economic development and vibrancy of the Town.
• References to fees and charges and the list of permit conditions have been removed from the policy as this is detail not usually included in the Town’s policies.

The Town is seeking your feedback before the draft policy is adopted.