A report of the outcomes of the preliminary notification period will be considered at the next Council meeting on Tuesday 19 May 2026 at 6pm. You can attend or watch via the live stream.
We’re investigating establishing an 18-month trial of a Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) to support a more diverse, safe and vibrant Manly night-time economy.
New maximum trading hours for all businesses, and a clear and consistent sound management framework would make it easier for venues to host live music, performance and other arts and cultural activities whilst protecting residential amenity.
These new draft controls are based on an acoustic study and feedback from the early consultation period on the SEP boundaries and meetings with the Manly SEP Precinct Working Group.
We asked for your feedback from 17 February to 9 March 2026 on the proposed Manly SEP and received over 300 submissions. Thank you to everyone who shared their views. Your feedback helped inform the council report, which will be considered at the May Council meeting to decide whether to send the draft planning documents to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for Gateway approval.
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:
| During consultation for the Manly Place Plan, you told us that Manly’s night-life needs a broader variety of activities, outdoor dining, retail, bars, live music, buskers and markets. |
We requested your views from 13 Mar to 11 Apr 2025 to inform the grant application and received 400+ comments on the proposed SEP boundaries and ideas for Manly after dark.
We received $173,760 through the NSW Government’s SEP Kickstart Grant Program to establish a SEP in Manly. The funding is being used to prepare an acoustic study and undertake community engagement.
The SEP Kickstart Grant has helped us implement actions identified in the Manly Place Plan including:
| Manly is iconic visitor destination, established late-night precinct, vital place for workers and a welcoming home for residents. 27% of all jobs in Manly are related to the 24-hour economy, and a SEP would drive spending in late-night venues, retail stores, and local businesses, stimulating economic growth. The proposed SEP is restricted to blocks where existing licensed venues are concentrated and avoids coverage of residential land zones. Since we last sought feedback on the precinct boundaries, the SEP has been expanded to include more areas suitable for entertainment uses and vibrancy, and to capture the entirety of the E1 Local Centre zone under the Manly Local Environment Plan 2013. |
If your property is shaded blue on the map below, that means it has been identified for inclusion within the SEP trial boundaries.
| We are reporting the outcomes of the preliminary notification period at the May Council meeting and seek next steps as to whether to lodge the SEP planning proposal with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for Gateway approval. If it is decided to progress with the project, there will be more opportunities to provide feedback as we refine the PMP including a 28-day statutory public exhibition period in mid/late -2026, and during the SEP trial as we monitor and evaluate its success and impacts. As well as continuing to meet with the Precinct Working Group and engaging with stakeholders and relevant government authorities to discuss community safety, compliance, events and public transport. |
The purpose of the Precinct Working Group (PWG) is to meet regularly to provide input into the preparation of the SEP (including new trading hours and sound controls), and the establishment, monitoring and evaluation of the 18-month SEP trial.
The PWG consists of the Northern Beaches Police Area Command, Liquor & Gaming NSW, Transport for NSW and the Northern Sydney Local Health District as well as the following table of residents, community, business and local interest groups.
| Cathy Griffin | Manly Community Forum |
| Ramsie Taylor | Manly Business Chamber |
| Chris Harper | Live music/entertainment/arts & culture |
| Claire Morris | Live music/entertainment/arts & culture |
| Elodie Quintard | Live music/entertainment/arts & culture |
| Conor Farrell | Live music/entertainment/arts & culture |
| Sam Wilkins | Live music/entertainment/arts & culture |
| Noel Purcell | Resident |
| Angela Williams | Resident |
| Michael Dalichau | Resident |
| Gary O'Brien | Resident |
| Claire Taverner | Resident |
| Mats Ernarsan | Resident |
| Sam Stow | Resident |
| Leanne Miller | Resident |
| Adam Gainsford | Business |
| Ben Collis | Business |
| Zoe Hudson | Business |
| Joe Bruzzese | Business |
| Molly Linton | Business |
| David Lee | Business |
| Lyndsay Dalton | Business |
| Dean Romeo | Business |
| Name | Strategic & Place Planning Team |
|---|---|
| Phone | 1300 434 434 (during business hours) or 131 450 (for translation services) |
| council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au | |
| In writing | marked 'Manly Special Entertainment Precinct', Northern Beaches Council, PO Box 82, Manly NSW 1655. |
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