Manly is a place for early-risers, night owls and everyone in between.

That’s why we’re proposing to allow all businesses (licensed and unlicensed) in the SEP including cafes, shops, bars and galleries to trade anytime 5am – midnight on Sundays to Wednesdays, and 5am – 2am on Thursdays to Saturdays.

We’ll also allow outdoor dining from 6am – 11pm every day of the week to enliven Manly’s streets and laneways. This includes private outdoor areas such as balconies and internal courtyards.

Businesses can trade anytime within the maximum trading hours without needing to modify their development consent. During the trial, we want to give businesses the flexibility to trade earlier or later for one day, a weekend, during a big event, the summer, or for the whole duration of the trial.

Licensed venues will still need approval from Liquor & Gaming NSW to vary the hours of their liquor licence.

To encourage live music and performances, the Liquor Act 2007 gives eligible licensed venues in SEPs additional hours of liquor trading if they regularly host live music or performances. For more information on these incentives, visit Liquor & Gaming NSW’s website.

For more detail on the proposed maximum trading hours, see Section 2 of the draft PMP.

We’re proposing to take a balanced approach to sound management where the responsibility of mitigating the impacts of sound in a vibrant precinct like Manly is shared between venues and residents.

Venues in the SEP will need to operate within new sound limits, and new development must be designed to mitigate entertainment sound. These controls are outlined in Section 3 of the draft PMP in the proposed sound management framework.

The sound controls in this PMP override offensive noise provisions and any existing liquor licence, development consent or complying development certificate conditions applicable to a premises relating to entertainment sound, to the extent that they are inconsistent with the PMP.

The framework does not apply to sound from the public realm, including pedestrians, road traffic, events and busking. Entertainment sound from events in the public realm will continue to be managed through existing event approval processes including any required sound management plans.

In NSW, depending on the source and type, sound is managed by several regulators including Liquor & Gaming NSW, Council and NSW Police.

Entertainment sound from licensed venues is regulated by Liquor & Gaming NSW who provide detailed guidance for how to deal with excessive noise from licensed venues on their website.

Most sound conflicts can be resolved quickly by contacting the source of the sound. Council recommends having a discussion with the venue if you are impacted by unreasonable levels of entertainment sound before lodging a complaint with a regulator.

Section 4 of the draft PMP identifies the appropriate contacts for sound complaints, and Council is proposing to provide a current list of venues and their contact details online during the SEP trial.

Once the Manly Local Environmental Plan 2013 is amended and the SEP is established, we’ll undertake an 18-month trial of the new maximum trading hours and sound controls, and work with businesses and the community to monitor the SEP’s impact, and identify emerging issues and opportunities for continual improvement.

After 12 months, we’ll go back to the community to evaluate the SEP and seek a Council resolution on whether the SEP should be made permanent or be revoked.

A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan is found in Section 1.6 of the draft PMP, and outlines what indicators we’ll use to measure the SEP's success and impacts, for example:

• are there different types of businesses taking up extended trading hours?
• are there more live music and other arts and cultural events taking place?
• do businesses feel value from the operation of the SEP and its incentives?
• are residents satisfied with the levels of entertainment sound?
• do residents and visitors feel safe at night?
• is there an appropriate and proportionate number of alcohol-related incident callouts to venues and public areas?
• are venues complying with trading hours and sound limits in the PMP?
• is there increased public transport patronage?