Northern Beaches Council has voted to trial extended trading hours and new noise rules for venues in Manly’s town centre, in a move it says will revive the area’s nightlife while restoring local oversight that the state government stripped away with its vibrancy reforms.
The 18-month trial, known as the Manly Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP), is expected to begin this spring, pending state government approval.
But many residents are not happy. Some say they can no longer sleep and are looking to leave the area, and the Manly Residents Group has raised more than $20,000 to legally challenge the decision.
The basics
Council voted to proceed with the 18-month Manly Special Entertainment Precinct trial at last Tuesday’s meeting, which, if approved by the state government, will unlock additional grant funding for night-time activation of the CBD, including East and West Esplanade.
Under the Manly SEP, outdoor trading hours would shift slightly earlier in the morning and later on weekends compared to current rules. Right now, venues can serve outdoors from 7am (public areas like footpaths) or 8am (private areas like balconies) until 10pm. The new plan would allow a 6am start every day, with a 10pm finish on weeknights and an 11pm finish on weekends.
The main practical change, then, is a later cut-off on Friday and Saturday nights and a slightly earlier start in the morning.
For indoor trading, restaurants will be permitted to trade until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays and until midnight the rest of the week. Restaurants currently close at 1am; the new rules would bring them in line with hotels, meaning midnight Sunday to Thursday and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.
If a venue already has consent to trade later than the SEP hours, that consent overrides the SEP and the later trading can continue. Venues are also able to apply to have their hours extended past the SEP limits via a Development Application.
Overall trading hours for licenses venues won’t be dramatically different (except for a few places like Manly Pavilion who will be able to trade later indoors by a few hours on weekends.)
It is more the new noise limits, and how they are assessed, that have locals upset.
The Manly Residents Group, which claims to represent the 8,000 residents living in the area, says the noise is already unacceptable at times and that the proposed limits are far too lax. They say the proposed allowance of 70 decibels until midnight and 60 decibels overnight will affect residents’ health, with the levels exceeding World Health Organisation (WHO) sleep recommendations.
“We’re finding that [residents] are having to live with the stressed noise levels. They can’t sit in their living rooms, they can’t sleep. They have to potentially put noise-cancelling headsets on during the day and late into the evening, to the point where people are actually now being forced out,” Nancy, a coordinator for the Manly Residents Group residing on West Esplanade, told Manly Observer.
Three separate tenants in the area, including a mother and child, are already looking to relocate.
The group claims three separate tenants in the area, including a mother and child, are already looking to relocate. Its GoFundMe is seeking $45,000 in donations and has currently received half that amount, with the money going towards a planning barrister and an independent acoustic engineer to challenge the acoustic data underpinning the SEP.
Council’s defence
Northern Beaches Council, and the councillors who voted for the SEP to proceed to Gateway determination, say the precinct is the only way Council can regain some control over sound limits and late-night trading after the state government removed all council controls under the 2024 Vibrancy Reforms. (Gateway determination is the state government sign-off required before the trial can proceed to public exhibition.)
Under the reforms, noise limits vary from venue to venue with a shift in responsibility for managing entertainment sound taken from councils and given to Liquor and Gaming NSW (L&GNSW).
“The whole point of the SEP is to return control back to the Council, rather than leave it with State Government and Liquor and Gaming and allow us to put measurable and objective measurements of sound around the precinct,” Councillor Nicholas Beaugeard told us before voting in favour at last week’s meeting.
“The whole point of the SEP is to return control back to the Council.”
The Curl Curl Ward councillor wanted to make clear that, despite misconceptions, the trial is about bringing in controls where there are none, and it will allow for a public exhibition period, with the ability to make ongoing amendments or even bring the experiment to an early end.
Councillor Sarah Grattan echoed this, believing there to be some miscommunication among businesses and residents alike on what the Manly SEP will change.
“For me, the planning makes sense. It really aligns with all our strategies…and it provides Council with a whole lot of controls that have been taken away from us by the vibrancy reforms,” the Manly Ward councillor said.
“I think we had 300 or so submissions and a petition, and they’re dead against [SEP], and they just prefer the status quo. But, a number of the businesses are also saying that maybe the status quo is better because they’ve got it easier and there’s less control and they can have greater scope to do what they like.”
The vote did reflect some community concerns: the trading hours adopted were shorter than those originally proposed.
Deputy Mayor and Manly Ward councillor Candy Bingham was disappointed in the vote, feeling it ignored resident complaints about noise levels.
“Manly is a very congested area. About 8,000 residents will be affected by this change.
“The proposal starts at 70 decibels in the Corso and at the Wharf, that’s the equivalent to your next door neighbour having a very loud party with loud conversations competing with loud music. 70 decibels on a weeknight until 10 but on the weekend until midnight, after which it drops to 60 decibels until 7am. By the way 60d is what has been approved in Enmore Street until midnight not after it!
“At West Esplanade where there are three venues, including two new outdoor ones, all with separate music speakers competing with each other.
“The residents have already provided their feedback to Council and yet not a single decibel threshold has been changed. Not one sound level was reduced.”
What has changed with noise limits?
As a Special Entertainment Precinct, new sound limits will be established across Manly’s town centre. There is currently no single precinct-wide standard; noise is managed venue by venue with no consistent framework. The SEP introduces a blanket standard for all venues, with maximum noise levels in the higher activation areas allowed to reach 70 dB(A) at residential boundary lines. The lowest activation zones – in areas primarily categorised as residential – still has noise reaching as high as 55 dB(A) at the boundary.
A further change addresses the complaints process. The NSW Vibrancy Reforms transferred noise enforcement authority from councils to the state in 2024, directing all complaints to NSW Liquor and Gaming. Under that system, at least five residents must first meet with the venue owner, then lodge a formal complaint supported by evidence of disturbance, before the enforcement department will investigate.
The SEP would provide the state with clear noise limits for assessing complaints.
The noise in detail
The science of sound is contested. For a deeper understanding of how sound works and how it will affect your area in Manly specifically, read our explainer here.
Council has mapped residential boundary lines across the suburb, modelling how loud it can be for those living there and at what times.
Across all areas, the projected sound levels exceed WHO recommendations for undisturbed sleep: 30 dB(A), roughly the level of rustling leaves.
“We were contacted by hundreds of people who said, ‘Actually, I’m affected by this, and I thought I was the only one.’ So we’ve got groups who are in the Corso who are directly affected by the several venues that are in the Corso, which they’re claiming are not compliant to the current noise levels. They’re well over the 70 dB,” Manly Community Forum chairperson Cathy Griffin said.
The sound measurement method used in the Draft SEP essentially averages all sound over a 15-minute interval to determine what levels reach the residential boundary. Before the Vibrancy Reforms, the standard approach measured the loudest sounds occurring in the top 10 per cent of the measurement period, capturing noise peaks more accurately. The latter method is better suited to assessing sleep disturbance.
Importantly, the new measurement approach was not created by the SEP; it is the standard set by the state government.
The Manly SEP Draft Plan acknowledges that noise limits at residential boundary lines will exceed WHO recommendations, but states that 30 dB(A) inside dwellings remains achievable through window glazing. Though standard older apartments generally won’t have this level of sound attenuation, meaning residents will need to pay for upgrades themselves.
Following state government agreement, the plans will be put on public exhibition for further community input.
Manly Observer will continue to monitor the process.
Written and researched by Jack Kelly, edited by Kim Smee.
