Goal: In collaboration with SustainbleEast, JOC Consulting was engaged by Penrith City Council to develop a Night Time Economy (NTE) Strategy 2022, recognising Council has completed all the actions from their previous 2015 NTE strategy.

The JOC Consulting developed strategy considered the significant population growth, increased demand for local services and the disruption faced by businesses during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Importantly, the strategy aided in delivering Council’s vision for the Penrith City Centre to transform into a vibrant, bustling metropolitan centre.

Solution: The strategy utilised a place-based approach, combined with bespoke late night growth classifications, to deliver targeted actions and recommendations, helping Penrith evolve as a vibrant, lively 24-hour city. This design provided qualitative targets for Council to work towards, and distinguished between Council intervention versus place management to encourage short term growth.

The project involved a comprehensive audit and study to identify night time activity within the centre (such as businesses, public spaces and perceived anti-social behaviour), and an analysis of broader inputs including economic, employment and industry specific data.

Outcome: Alignment to key state policy, including the framework developed by Investment NSW, was an integral consideration of the project to enable Council to operationalize JOC’s strategy and obtain future state government grant funding in various late night activations, changes and business support.

The data collected during the night time audit was hosted on online spatial viewer Giraffe, allowing Council to easily monitor growth after the projects finalisation.