The Hobart City Council will audit all outdoor dining permits across the city following an incident where a truck struck cafe furniture on Criterion Street.
CCTV footage from the Pulse Tasmania newsroom captured the collision, showing a truck clipping council-owned planter boxes and a white fence.
The impact shoved furniture into patrons sitting outside, shifting tables and flipping chairs. No one was injured.
The motion for an audit, put forward by Alderman Louise Bloomfield, passed 9-1 at Monday night’s council meeting.
“[We need to] ensure that going forwards compliance is maintained to the highest standard so that people who actually have this privilege of outdoor dining have the right to ensure that their patrons are safe,” she said.
She said the audit was not about reassessing risks but checking whether businesses had gradually moved furniture beyond approved boundaries – what she called “barrier creep”.
“A contributing factor to Criterion Street was the fact that they had moved the barrier closer to the road. If they had not done that, it’s very possible the accident may not have occurred,” she said.
“It might have been close, but it was definitely a contributing factor.”
Alderman Marti Zucco supported the audit but argued the focus should be on high-risk sites.
“What we should be auditing is outdoor dining, in particular where there’s no car parking, that provides a barrier to the diners,” he said.
He added that outdoor dining works best when set against buildings, not the kerb edge.
Councillor John Kelly pointed to a dining strip on Elizabeth Street, where tables sit in a former parking space on a 50km/h road with only a “small pot plant” as protection.
“God forbid … if there was a death or something like that, we’re at least showing that we’re being responsible with the work we do here,” he said.
But Councillor Ryan Posselt voted against the motion, arguing it targets the wrong problem.
“This motion is not about on-street dining. It’s about keeping people safe in our CBD because a truck or a car can run off the road at any point and run into a vulnerable road user,” he said.
He said real solutions lie in traffic calming, lower speed limits and reducing vehicle numbers – not auditing cafe furniture.
“Having two-tonne, ten-tonne vehicles moving through our CBD is an inherent risk,” he said.
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said she was “reluctantly” backing the “worthy” motion but worried it could confuse businesses, with staff currently drafting a new outdoor dining policy.
“I do also take on board that, really, footpaths can be unsafe places if vehicle movements are erratic and speed limits are too high,” she said.
“Sometimes when I’m standing on … Macquarie Street … I worry how close people are to the side of the kerb as they’re waiting for the green light for pedestrians … there’s lots of places where our footpaths can be dangerous.”
Council staff said the audit would involve sending each outdoor dining venue a reminder with a copy of their permit.
Venues will need to provide photos showing they’re complying with boundaries, followed by spot checks from council staff.
The work will be done by council staff at no cost to ratepayers, with no external consultants required.
