City of Sydney council to introduce 24 hour trade for pubs and restaurants - Eat Out

Oct 30, 2024

In the face of noise complaints, the City of Sydney has slashed liquor license fees and added protections to hospitality venues.

Twenty anonymous residents of Sydney Harbour’s Bennelong Apartments (AKA ‘The Toaster’) have lodged a complaint over a Circular Quay venue’s application to extend its trading hours under the City of Sydney’s proposed nightlife reforms.

Located at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Squire’s Landing plans to take advantage of the city’s range of measures to improve Sydney’s nightlife and ‘vibrancy’, which centres around easing red tape binding art, culture, hospitality and entertainment across the city, especially in the CBD’s Late Night Management Area.

The Late Night Management Area extends across the city centre from The Rocks to Central Station, between Darling Harbour and Hyde Park.

The Squire’s Landing sits well within the late-night zone, and is one of a handful of Circular Quay restaurants and pubs that have applied for the year-long trial for a 24/7 license.

The crowded forecourt at Squire's Landing, Circular Quay

The Squire’s Landing – one of the brewhouses run by the James Squire beer company – is a Category B low impact premises, meaning it’s a venue that may sell alcohol and have capacity for fewer than 120 patrons (this category also includes dedicated performance venues with a capacity for up to 250 patrons). The proposed extended trading hours would take this category from 6am-2am (indoors) and 7am-10pm (outdoors) to 24 hours (indoors) and 7am-1am (outdoors).

Residents of the Bennelong Apartments have written to the NSW Department of Planning to voice their concerns that, despite being 400 metres away and living in the heart of the CBD, The Squire’s Landing already “significantly impacts residents’ peace and quiet enjoyment of their habitat as well as their health and wellbeing,” highlighting their bedtime as being “between 9:30 and 10:30pm.”

Nighttime economy minister John Graham said, “These are residents right in the heart of the CBD; it’s a strange choice of address for someone looking to get early to bed.” Graham continued, “If you are living in the centre of Sydney, it goes with the territory that there’s a little bit of activity including after dark – that’s how it should be.”

The protest is the latest in a series of squeaky wheels opposing hospitality venues extending trading hours, particularly those with outdoor seating. Within days of the council announcing measures to allow permanent outdoor seating in pockets of Sydney, The Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo contended with a neighbour’s complaint which put their permit in jeopardy.

Residents of the Northern Beaches were left baffled after a late-night trading application by The Joey – an isolated premises in Palm Beach – was rejected, citing noise impacts on nearby properties. The closest property is 800m away, separated by a golf course. The application was to trade until 11pm.

The NIMBY complaints are a disheartening sign as the city battles to recover from over a decade of setbacks. Lockout laws, Covid lockdowns and impossibly expensive overheads have been a major ongoing concern for Sydney’s hospitality industry, its residents and local government, which has responded by establishing Australia’s first-ever Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner.

Despite pushback from a small number of residents, things are looking optimistic for Sydney’s nightlife. On October 29, the City of Sydney council unanimously passed two proposals that will make it easier and more affordable for venues to trade late, and to support venues with sound management.

The proposals will also give ‘sound rights’ to existing venues, while placing the onus of sound management on new developments, both commercial and residential.

The proposals aim to overlay Special Entertainment Precincts status over “existing well-established and well-understood late night trading areas” and include extended trade approval for live music, incentives for venues to increase live entertainment and a whopping 80 percent discount on liquor licence fees.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced the win via a statement on Instagram. The planning changes around the Special Entertainment Precincts will be on exhibition soon on the NSW Department of Planning & Environment website.