The Victorian Government and Melbourne City Council are joining forces to deliver a $100 million package. The package is being offered to support Victorian hospitality and cultural venues to transition to an outdoor dining plan.
The Age reports that Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews today announced the $100 million city recovery fund to help Melbourne as restrictions are eased.
Andrews said, “The $100 million to support the city, given the unique burden it carries, is a very important partnership and one that will make a real difference as we push through this and get to the other side.”
The package will result in handy grants to help businesses in those industries adjust to the new proposed outdoor dining plans. The plans are pretty similar to New York’s Open Restaurant Program.
It sees cafes and restaurants utilise footpaths and kerbside parking, while areas like parks and gardens are to be transformed into dining spaces.
“If you look at places like New York, they have been able to get their hospitality sector back to something approaching normal, faster than what would otherwise have been the case because they have used the footpath and kerbside parking and taken public space and turned it into pop-up cafes, restaurants, bars,” he said.
The Premier said they’re still hashing out the details of the outdoor dining plan. That includes the densities and capacity limits around the new dining sitch.
There will be an additional $87.5 million to help hospitality venues in Melbourne suburbs.
Today was the first day of the slightly eased restrictions in Victoria.
The New South Wales Government joins Victoria in their attempts to forge a path forward through the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
