New Alfresco Design Will Breathe Live Into Werribee City Centre

With the easing of restrictions this week to allow customers to sit down and socialise in cafes and restaurants, Wyndham City leading the way enhancing the vibrancy of Werribee City Centre and Hoppers Junction with the inclusion of temporary alfresco seating areas.

Wyndham City Mayor Cr Josh Gilligan said the spaces, called parklets, were designed to offer outdoor options for diners as well as provide increased space and opportunity for customers in the transition back to normal business.

“The temporary outdoor dining areas are intended to be used by customers of businesses in its vicinity to boost trade while Covid-19 restrictions limit the number of people allowed in a restaurant or cafés,” Cr Gilligan said.

“The parklets will occupy previous car spaces that are not being used as frequently due to many residents still working from home rather than returning to their workplace.”  

“Residents have the opportunity to use these parklets to socialise with family and friends and breathe life back into these centres – while adhering to social distancing guidelines.”

“This will not only give food outlets a financial lift, but it will increase the morale of the entire street to see people enjoying our city centres again.”

“The parklet pilot will be in place for the next three months and in that time, we will gather feedback from customers, businesses, and the general public as well as monitor car parking vacancy rates.”

Founder and operator of District 3030 Ami Tran said that while the impact of Covid-19 had been challenging for businesses in Wyndham, it was great to see Council’s parklet initiative being introduced to support the recent easing of restrictions.

“We still have limits on the numbers of customers we can have on-premise so creating additional space for customers to sit and have a bite is not only a welcome addition to our streetscape, it’s a way to increase business - a great innovation,” Ms Tran said.

In the next three weeks, Council will build and install six parklets: two at Hoppers Junction Shopping Strip and four in Watton Street, Werribee City Centre.

The parklets will be owned, maintained and sanitised by Council.

The parklets will be located as follows:

Hoppers Junction – In between Jock and Mack café and Elio’s Pizza Hoppers Junction – In between Michael’s Fish n Chips and Hoppers Kebabs and Grill Watton Street – In between District 3030 and Sunny Tran Bakery Watton Street – In between Chatterbox and Notorious Espresso cafes Watton Street – In between Il Piccolo and B2B cafes Watton Street – In between Black Seed and Social Sutra cafes

The parklets will take four angled parking spaces each and no disabled parking spaces will be used.