Pirie Street parklet dining removed by city council
Jack & Jill’s Restaurant and Bar had its outdoor dining parklet removed over the weekend, after racking up over $30,000 in unpaid council fees.
On Sunday, the parklet with five tables and 25 stools was removed from the Pirie Street restaurant after $34,000 worth of parklet permit fees, about $330 per week, remained unpaid.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Jack & Jill’s owner Tom McLean said “this was never about not paying fees, it was about a justified approach that was fair for both business owners and the ACC [Adelaide City Council]”.
“While I am heartbroken at losing my parklet, my business will continue to fight to survive,” he wrote.
Adelaide City Council CEO Michael Sedgman said taking enforcement action to remove the parklet was the council’s “only remaining option” as the matter had been ongoing without resolution “for some time”.
“Council’s preference was and always had been, for Jack & Jill’s to renew its parklet permit, pay outstanding fees and continue operating the parklet,” Sedgman said.
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“However, the permit had expired and, despite repeated contact and offers of a payment plan by council, fees totalling over $34,000 across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years remain unpaid by the operator, during which time the parklet has continued to operate in the public realm unlawfully.
“Multiple hospitality businesses in other locations in the city continue to operate parklets and engage with council to pay the required fees.”
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To activate the city, the council trialled a rollout of these parklets across the CBD in 2021. When the trial phase was over, businesses with parklets were charged two fees: a council fee for the loss of parking revenue and a standard parklet operating fee.
In its upcoming 2025-26 budget, the council has simplified the model so there’s one parklet fee instead of two and introduced quarterly invoicing, where businesses were previously billed annually.
Jack & Jill’s parklet on Pirie Street took up three paid parking spaces, which would have generated $60,000 in paid parking revenue if it weren’t used for outdoor dining.
In December last year, McLean publicly addressed the unpaid fees, telling the council there is an “appalling” disparity between the parklet fees and his other outdoor dining fees.
He said he paid about $47 per seat for outdoor dining compared to $960 per seat in the parklet.
The removal of the parklet follows calls from other small businesses that the parklet and the outdoor dining fee model are hurting an industry in “survival mode”.
Penny University owner Foti Likouras is one of the business owners calling for change, asking the council at last Tuesday’s meeting to consider changing how outdoor dining and parklet fees are applied in their upcoming budget.
Former Central Ward councillor Carmel Noon previously brought a motion to council in December to remove the loss of car park revenue fee and for impacted businesses to be backpaid, but it did not pass the chamber at the time.
Noon, who is running in the upcoming Central Ward by-election, said McLean isn’t alone in his concerns and the decision to remove Jack & Jill’s parklet when the business was closed “felt unnecessarily covert and heavy-handed”.
“It sends a deeply unsettling message to the broader hospitality industry: comply without question, or face punitive action,” Noon said.