Adelaide City Council has rejected a request to suspend outdoor dining fees for restaurants and cafes when it's too cold for al fresco customers.

At last night’s meeting, Councillor Carmel Noon lost her bid to look into alternative models for the outdoor dining fees paid by restaurants and cafes. 

Noon suggested the council consider waiving the fees between May and August as the colder weather typically deters customers from sitting and dining outside. 

The agenda note prepared for last night’s meeting said a fee exemption from May to August would cut council revenue by about $200,000. The total projected revenue the council receives from outdoor dining fees is $550,000.  

The fees paid by city cafes and restaurants were reinstated last year as part of the council’s 2023/24 budget.

“Charging fees when the majority of restaurants and cafes are not utilising their outdoor dining in the months between May and August is in my opinion, just a shame,” Noon said. 

Noon requested the council administration put together a report on alternative models for outdoor dining fees and consider these changes in their 2025-26 budget. This picture: Tony Lewis/InDaily

The fees are based on the amount of public space the venue occupies per square metre, as well as location, with lower fees for areas of lower foot traffic. Additional fees apply for fixed furniture and cafe screens or blinds. 

In February, the council asked outdoor dining permit holders for feedback, with 71 per cent of the 67 respondents saying  reinstating permit fees had hit their bottom line.

The most common impacts of fees as reported to council were they added to “the growing financial strain on small business”, were “not worth it for the return” and “shouldn’t be another fee on top of rates and other fees”. 

Last month, CityMag spoke to hospitality operators about the impacts of the cost of living crisis and was told the outdoor dining costs cause stress to venue owners. 

CityMag checked out the City of Adelaide’s outdoor dining fee calculator to see how much it costs venues to offer al fresco service. A 10 metre square central activity and main street area space over two years cost $926.

The agenda note prepared for last night’s meeting said the City of Adelaide’s fees “remain amongst the least expensive outdoor dining fees across all metropolitan and Capital City Councils.”

Councillor Mary Couros, who owns family businesses Ruby Red Flamingo and Tony Tomatoes, supported Noon’s request to look into alternative fees. 

“It’s a discussion piece about regarding goodwill to our small businesses to ensure that there is not an added expense to to their outdoor dining and Lord Mayor, it really affects the small business owner,” Couros said. 

But Councillor Simon Hou opposed waiving outdoor dining fees, saying it would become a “micromanagement process”. 

“It cost me a lot of time to explain to my ratepayers in Gouger Street in the food precinct saying why this council, we have to charge outdoor dining fees for good reasons,” Hou said. 

“Now we have to turn back to them and say, ‘hang on, we’re going to waive your outdoor dining fee for a couple of months because the weather might not be good enough’. 

“Hey, they can come back to you; ‘in summertime it is too hot and it’s not good to sit outside too’.

“If we have made the decision to charge the outdoor dining fee for the good reasons for our ratepayers, let’s do it and once we’ve so-called fixed up our budget and when we feel comfortable enough to waive our outdoor dining fees then let’s do it for all the year round.” 

The motion was lost with only Councillors Henry Davis, Noon and Courous voting in favour of investigating waiving fees. 

“Obviously this is not going to get up tonight but I hope all the cafe and restaurant and permit holders who actually vote for you guys are listening tonight because I actually believe that this is disappointing that we are not looking at this for the next budget,” Noon said.