City of Albany council vote to relax food van rules

Food vans are set to roll up to several new locations across town after the City of Albany council voted in support of the first major changes to its trading in public places policy in nearly a decade.

On Tuesday evening councillors voted unanimously to push through the changes, which will come into effect over the next month and will allow food vans to operate in five new locations.

Vans will be allowed to park at fixed locations at Nanarup Beach, Lake Weerlara Park, Foundation Park, Goode Beach and Surfers Beach carpark.

Food van operators will also be able to access a special permit to trade within the CBD.

With the permit, food vans can operate as close as 150m to another shop that “generally offers the same type of goods for sale”.

In the CBD, they would be able to serve customers between 1pm and dusk on Saturdays and during all daylight hours on Sundays.

On Stirling Terrace, mobile food vans will be allowed to trade between 10pm and 2am on Fridays and between 10pm and midnight on Saturdays.

Food vans will also be allowed to stay in a location after serving all customers in the area.

Vans parked 2km out of the CBD can stay for an additional two hours and those 10km away can stay for four hours.

The current policy has been in place since 2009 with minor reviews undertaken in 2010 and 2017.