Businesses cheer as Tamworth council reforms outdoor drinking in the CBD

"Any current liquor licenses will have stipulations based on the old policy of not being able to drink without dining, so licensees will now have to apply to the Office of Liquor, Gaming, and Racing to update their license. It's not something that automatically happens," owner of CH Group Jye Segboer said.

CH Group owns the DECO Wine Bar & Restaurant and the Pig & Tinderbox, which are both affected by the looser regulation on alcohol consumption.

Both venues are in the process of updating their liquor licenses to reflect the new council policy, which Mr Segboer says will likely take around two weeks to complete.

"Most applications are going through that office fairly quickly, about two weeks ... I don't see it being a long or lengthy process," Mr Segboer said.

At Tamworth Regional Council's latest meeting, councillors voted unanimously to change its footpath dining policy, allowing outdoor diners in the CBD to enjoy their drinks without the purchase of a meal for the first time since 1996.

At that meeting, a report said 20 supportive written submissions were received during the recent public exhibition of the twice-revised policy.

On the other hand there were also concerns sent in regarding public drunkenness. But the report to council said "extensive CCTV infrastructure throughout the CBD" will help maintain public safety.

Mr Segboer said he doesn't think public drunkenness will become an issue at his CBD venues.

"We're hoping it attracts more leisure consumption that's not attached to a meal. All of our staff practise good RSA [Responsible Service of Alcohol] and we have RSA marshals always on duty, and I think the demographic of people that come to our venues are not the type of people who are going to be binge drinking," he said.

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The first round of community consultation, a survey of 269 residents, showed more than 60 per cent of locals were in favour of allowing outdoor diners to have alcoholic drinks without a meal, except during Tamworth's country music festival.

After advocating for this change for several months, Mr Segboer said he was happy to approach the final hurdle: updating liquor licenses with the NSW Department of Liquor and Gaming.

"It's great for the community, great for visitors to our region. It's excellent that we're now going to be on par with other regional centres that already have this, places like Orange, Dubbo, and Wagga Wagga," he said.

"I think the consultation in terms of communication could've been handled a little bit better. I do believe that's something council needs to improve on in general, it's communication with industry, with business, and with the community around changes."

A new condition has also been added to the footpath dining policy requiring awnings on public footpaths for restaurant and outdoor seating to be certified by a structural engineer to protect public safety.

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