Adelaide City councillor Mary Couros calls for Jack & Jill’s Restaurant and Bar outdoor dining parklet reinstated
The cost of a conflict between Adelaide council and a popular CBD venue over a “simple request” has been revealed as a councillor blasts “vastly different rules”.
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A popular CBD bar and restaurant’s longstanding conflict over unpaid fees with Adelaide City Council has been laid bare, showing the council is more than $70,000 out of pocket.
Cr Mary Couros requested the council at Tuesday night’s meeting reinstate the outdoor dining parklet at Jack & Jills Bar and Restaurant on Pirie St, after it was removed earlier this month.
Cr Couros read a statement on behalf of restaurant owner Tom McLean after his request to give a deputation was denied by Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith on procedural grounds.
“The issue is simple, some parklet owners were charged thousands of dollars, while others had their fees quietly waived – without explanation, policy, or fairness,” she read.
“It’s hard to understand how the Adelaide City Council can apply such vastly different rules to businesses operating under the same conditions.”
In 2023-24, the council set parklet fees based on their size – and which was discounted if a business had no footpath dining – and loss of paid parking revenue if it was in a car space.
Cr Couros further requested outdoor dining and loss of carparking revenue fees applied to parklet holders in 2023-24 be waived due to inconsistent charges being applied.
In response to her motion, staff wrote reinstating the parklet would present “significant reputational risk” and increase challenges to the collection of fees for all permit activities.
Staff added Mr McLean was given offers of a payment plan and ways to reduce his $34,000 outstanding fee by $11,000, and given notice five times of the parklets removal.
The response detailed the council’s budget impact for the parklet: $11,000 for its construction, $34,000 in unpaid permit fees, $30,000 in lost parking revenue and $9500 to remove it.
Cr Philip Martin told the meeting that staff had met with the business 15 times to ask Mr McLean to comply with the agreement he entered into.
He added the council had made changes to how parklet fees were applied in 2025-26, which would be a single rate of $165 per square metre, per annum.
Cr Couros was unsuccessful in her attempt to waive parklet fees applied in 2023-24 or have the Jack & Jill’s parklet reinstated.
Mr McLean told The Advertiser it was frustrating he did not get to speak at the meeting, “but the argument still stands, there’s an inconsistent application of fees” with parklets.
“We just want a fair go, it’s upsetting we don’t have the numbers in council, but some of the council members don’t want to hear about it,” he said.
“They will not acknowledge the inconsistencies surrounding other parklets.”
Originally published as Adelaide City councillor Mary Couros calls for Jack & Jill’s Restaurant and Bar outdoor dining parklet reinstated
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