Council
23 October, 2026
Upper Lachlan Council to run café for 12 months
Upper Lachlan Council has resolved to operate the café at the new Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in Crookwell for 12 months because of the lack of external interest.
Upper Lachlan Council has resolved to operate the café at the new Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in Crookwell for 12 months because of the lack of external interest.
Councillors were advised at the October 15 meeting that an Expressions of Interest process had failed to attract a single response – primarily because there was no trading history.
Council resolved to allocate $20,000 from its building reserve to complete the fit-out of the café and an additional $237,500 from its operational expenditure budget for additional staff to operate the café and for the purchase of necessary stock.
The café is expected to operate on a cost neutral basis for 12 months based on council’s outlay.
Subject to the outcomes of the 12-month operating period, council will re-advertise the Expressions of Interest supported by trading information.
A staff report prepared for the October 15 meeting by council’s chief executive officer said the café was an important component of the new VIC precinct
It is expected to complement the VIC’s tourism, retail, exhibition and local produce functions, encourage visitors to spend more time at the facility and also provide a service to patrons at the adjoining swimming pool.
There were three options open to council: to operate the café itself, to re-advertise the lease at a peppercorn rent or to keep the café closed pending further interest.
Operating the café itself using council-employed staff would enable the café to establish a customer base “and generate reliable information regarding visitation, turnover, customer spend and seasonal trading patters”.
Council’s CEO said it would provide prospective operations with “considerably greater certainty” when assessing the viability of the business through a future EOI process.
“Establishing the café as an operating business is also expected to improve its attractiveness to the market and provide a stronger basis for council to achieve an appropriate commercial rental return through a future lease,” the CEO’s report said.
Councillor Vivienne Flanagan said she was “very keen” to see the café go ahead.
She said council was ready to open the VIC but couldn’t do so without a café.
She said it would be an on-going concern and create opportunities.
Mayor Gregory Harris said he was against the staff proposal for council to operate the café.
He said demand was unproven and council’s revenue predictions were optimistic.
He said operating a café was outside of council’s core functions.
Cr Susan Reynolds agreed.
She said it was a huge space that still needed fitting out and described it as an “unproven and unfinished site”.
She also said operating a café was “not our core business”.
“All of our energy needs to go into delivering premium council services.”
She said operation of the café would be a “distraction”.
Cr Reynolds said the money could be used on other things “that benefit our constituents and allow us to improve our game”.
She said tourism had died and less and less people were coming to town.
The café represented a “high risk”.
“We are simply not getting the tourists through the town,” she said.
Cr Culhane said prospective operators were reluctant to take on a greenfields site.
He said the best thing for council to do would be to operate the café on a 12-month trial basis and to “give operators the confidence to take it on”.
Cr John Searle said it was a risk that council would have to manage.
He asked if it would be a greater risk doing nothing at all given there would be a building sitting unutilised.
Cr Terry Yallouris said council was caught in a “perfect storm” and questioned the revenue predictions.
“The numbers don’t add up,” Cr Yallouris said.
“We need to do it but I don’t think we can do it now,” he said.
He said council should wait until the building was finished.
“This is not what we are really geared up for.”
Cr Simon Peirce said it was a case of “damned if you, damned if you don’t”.
He said council had no baseline but needed to start somewhere.
“The risk inherent in doing nothing is greater than the risk in doing something,” he said.
Deputy mayor Rob Cameron said he was “not a fan of government running businesses” but would support the recommendation.
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