LAKE Macquarie council hopes to have multiple "food truck hamlets" operating across the city by the end of the month as part of its VibrantSCENE initiative.
The pilot program, adopted by the council in July, was established to help hospitality businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It allows permanent businesses to apply to convert on-street parking spaces or other council land into expanded outdoor dining areas. Mobile food vendors are also able to apply to operate on council-owned land like in parks or reserves.
The council is working with Tangerine Events, which has been running the Lake Mac Food Truck Crawl.
Tangerine Events owners Danielle Mayes and Natalie Brown launched the ongoing event shortly after the pandemic began to spur business for vendors that lost most of their regular trade due to the cancellation of almost all major events.
It involves about six mobile vendors that rotate each week throughout the city.
However, only one vendor has been able to operate at each site. The VibrantSCENE program will facilitate the establishment of food truck "hamlets" where up to four vendors will be able to operate with the potential for live music and other activities.
Ms Mayes said the vendors had been popular at sites where there were few permanent businesses and the creation of the "hamlets" ahead of daylight savings would be an added boost for both vendors and the community.
The suburbs set to host the hamlets include Rathmines, Speers Point, Warners Bay, Croudace Bay, Belmont South and Cooranbong. Others are being considered.
"Mobile food vending has definitely been the most popular," Lake Macquarie council planner Sam Hardie said of interest in the program, which runs until the end of March. Ms Hardie said some fixed traders had applied to expand dining areas at Warners Bay, Belmont, Toronto and Wangi Wangi, but they were yet to be approved.
"We are working through risk assessments and obtaining RMS [Roads and Maritime Services] approvals," she said. "We're looking at those and they'll hopefully be up and running by mid-October."
Warners Bay traders had expressed interest in converting The Esplanade's on-street parking into dinning areas shortly after the program was announced.
