Funding of up to $150,000 to temporarily close streets to vehicles and open them on a day, or series of days, for placemaking activations for people.
Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: Up to $150,000
- Application opened: 29 January 2024
- Application closed: 30 April 2024, 5:00 pm
Program objective
The Open Streets Program is a $4.5 million grant program that will provide successful councils with funding of up to $150,000 to temporarily close streets to cars and open them on a day, or series of days, for placemaking events and activations. The program purpose is to encourage collaboration between government, business and community to improve the vibrancy of local streets and centres.
The Open Streets Program aims to meet these objectives:
- Temporarily close streets to vehicles and open them for people, with projects over a day, or series of days, and provide safe spaces for community events and activities.
- Bring vibrancy to our streets by creating a sense of excitement and discovery with creative events and activations that are inviting and inclusive to all the community.
- Support job creation in local businesses and the cultural sector.
- Support the development of longer-term place management outcomes, through projects that encourage private-public partnerships.
This program is administered by Cities and Active Transport.
This program is funded by Transport for NSW.
Eligibility
Who can apply
Applicants must be a council within NSW. Each council may only submit a single application.
Types of projects funded under this grant
Projects must:
- Be located:
- on one or more streets that are in Council or NSW Government ownership, and
- on streets that are primarily used for vehicles, and
- at the heart of one or more local centre/s.
- Temporarily close or partially close a street/s to vehicles in a location specified above.
- Deliver events and activations on the selected street/s that:
- are free for the community to access (Note: Free ticketed events are acceptable for managing attendance), and
- are inclusive to all members of the community, and
- occur on a single day or multiple days, and
- encourage engagement and support from local businesses, business associations, asset owners and major nearby employers, providing them with an opportunity to play a role in the events and activations.
- Support local employment and local businesses.
- Be held by January 2025, but may commence events and activations as soon as a funding agreement is in place and the necessary approvals are obtained by council.
Projects may:
- Include events and activities held across multiple streets. Cohesive programming is encouraged.
- Involve programming partnerships with a local gallery, school, library, arts organisation or similar, which is encouraged.
- Include council co-funding, which is encouraged.
What costs you can apply for
Funding may be used for:
- Costs associated with street closures including traffic control, signage, barriers or other infrastructure and cleaning.
- The installation of new public placemaking activations, art and/or street murals, where they can clearly be shown to support the event or activation.
- Event infrastructure, including leasing of equipment.
- Event production, including operations, logistics and technology providers.
- Engaging artists, performers, musicians, or other creative workers.
- Engaging a local creative, art, culture or learning institution for program development and delivery.
- Any other service or resources (up to a reasonable proportion of the funding amount) provided they contribute to delivering the event or activity and approved by TfNSW.
- Events and activities already in planning, provided councils demonstrate how the funding will expand the scope and amplify what is already planned. Note: Funding cannot be used to offset expenses of an existing or planned activation or event but can be used to extend the scope of an event.
- Microgrants to local businesses, community groups, schools or similar, to encourage organisations and businesses in the area to participate in programming (up to 10% of total partnership funding), provided the grants are consistent with the partnership criteria and program objectives.
What costs you can't apply for
Funding cannot be used for:
- Projects that involve permanent capital works, with the exception of murals.
- Funding for works that are considered to be part of council’s ongoing maintenance and management of a site.
- Funding of personnel or staff positions.
- Projects requiring ongoing funding from NSW Government, or retrospective funding to cover any project component that is already complete or underway.
- To offset expenses of an existing or planned activation or event, but can be used to extend the scope of an event (e.g. a daytime event into the night-time).
Types of projects not funded under this grant
Ineligible projects include:
- Activations that include any type of participation fee.
- Activations occurring after January 2025.
- Projects that are located on streets that are not primarily used by vehicles.
- An existing or planned activation or event except where the project is an extension of the scope of an existing event (e.g. a daytime event into the night-time).
What your application needs to include
Prepare your application with this checklist
Councils can apply by completing a simple online form via SmartyGrants by 5pm, 30 April 2024. Only one application per council will be accepted.
All applicants are required to supply the following information in their SmartyGrants application.
- Applicant information
- Project information
- Strategic alignment
- Partnerships and engagement
- Project deliverability
Further information on application requirements can be found at the SmartyGrants website.
Address the eligibility criteria
Each applicant, as part of an application response, must confirm that they meet the eligibility criteria.
Applicants that do not address the eligibility criteria in full may be excluded from the application process at the department's discretion.
Start the application
Applications for this grant are available via the SmartyGrants portal.
Note: If you are a new applicant to SmartyGrants, you will need to register and create a password. If you are already registered, you can log in with your existing username and password.
Apply now
After the application is submitted
Successful applications will be decided by: Executive Director, Cities Revitalisation and Place, Transport for NSW
Once an application is submitted to the SmartyGrants portal, applicants will receive an automatic acknowledgement of application receipt.
The Department will assess an application against the eligibility criteria outlined in the Open Streets Program Guidelines, this includes:
- Whether the applicant meets the eligibility criteria to apply for funding.
- Whether the application meets the detail required with sufficient evidence to support the project proposal.
- Whether the project meets the eligibility criteria for funding.
Applications that satisfy stated eligibility criteria are approved, up to the limit of available funding.
Where appropriate, the Department will seek to remedy eligibility issues with the applicant.
Unless further information is required, applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application within four weeks of its submission.
Support and contact
To help applicants prepare their application, additional information and resources are available at the SmartyGrants portal.