Newark Town Council explores plans to run a food kiosk at Sherwood Avenue play park as a way of diversifying its income stream

A council is exploring plans to run its own food kiosk as a popular play park as a way of diversifying its income stream.

At a recent meeting, Newark Town Council’s finance and general purposes committee was asked to review initial proposals for a retail kiosk at Sherwood Avenue Park, as well as consider the installation of a public toilet.

At the end of last year, plans were approved for the redevelopment of the park as a whole, with new playground equipment, wildlife, and activity areas. Within this, part of the site was earmarked for a structure to provide food and drink.

Councillors were first asked to approve the general idea of a kiosk and if so, to engage the services of a planning consultant to properly put together and explore various planning options before an official application is made.

The kiosk could take the form of a movable trailer, or to build a more permanent unit at some extra expense.

The council plans to open the kiosk on weekends and bank holidays from April to December.

In that time, the council project that they could make as much as £26,000 a year — with peaks during school holidays — after retracting the initial set up costs, food costs and staffing.

Despite previous criticism of the timescale of work taking place at the park, Mathew Skinner was enthusiastic about the plans, saying that “Sherwood Avenue is becoming a destination in Newark again.”

He did, however, raise a question about the projected income of the scheme, believing it to be too ambitious.

Questions were raised also about the specifics of how the kiosk would be run — in particular, a concern around the proposed use of zero hours contracts.

Councillors were then asked to make a decision on whether they should operate the kiosk “in-house” and employ staff to run the operation day to day, or rent out the unit to a vendor.

Paul Taylor was keen to hire out the unit as he considered it to be “the safer option” and would minimise the “risk to the council.”

“This is about raising income so that we do not need to raise the council’s precept even more,” he said.

“But I think the safer option would be to have a franchise come in on a daily rate, so that there is minimal risk.”

Tom Collier agreed, saying that “devolution would give [the council] the best chance of success.”

However, most councillors concluded that running the kiosk “in house” would be preferable as it would help to maintain control.

Lisa Geary was not in favour, believing it was unnecessary given the proximity of other cafes and food vendors in the town centre.

“There is not a lot of foot traffic down there and the town has a lot of cafes a short walking distance away.” she said.

This argument was rejected by Diane Ledger who said: “As a parent, nine times out of ten I will bring a packed lunch if we’re having a day out at the park.

“But occasionally we may want to get a drink or an ice cream. After we’re settled, I don’t then want to pack everything up and go elsewhere.

“Having this service isn’t about taking business away from the town — you don’t have to buy from it, but it is there if you need it.”

Although in favour, Diane said that the council needed to be mindful about over charging, and that prices needed to be fully ironed out.

Dawn Campbell also raised a question about the type of food that would be sold at the kiosk, saying she hoped to see healthier food with more environmentally friendly packaging made available, with less plastic to avoid issues with littering.

The council agreed to move forward with the plans by employing a planning consultant to finalise the plans for the kiosk, and adopted an amendment which committed the authority to not using zero hours contracts.