Nelson City Council

Operative 5 June 2007

The Trading in Public Places Bylaw 2007 (No. 213) will see some changes to several key areas as follows:

Sandwich Boards/Footpath signs

Retailers and commercial premises in the central city and the main shopping areas in Victory Square, Tahunanui and Stoke are now only permitted to have one sandwich board or footpath sign outside their premises.  This rule does not apply to dairies or other shops outside of the main shopping areas. 

Enforcement

Council will be monitoring signage.  In the first instance a retailer with more than one sign will be warned and asked to remove the extra signs. Failure to do so will see the sign impounded and a fee will be charged for it to be reclaimed.

Trade Displays

Trade displays outside commercial premises in the central city are now prohibited unless they are part of a city wide promotional event. This includes any display of items for sale.

Enforcement

Council will be monitoring trade displays. As is the case with signage, in the first instance a retailer will be warned to remove the display. Failure to do so will see the display including any stock impounded and a fee will be charged for it to be reclaimed.

Buskers

What has previously been a code of conduct for buskers has now become binding in the new bylaw. Buskers must get the consent of the owner/manager of the premises they want to busk in front of.  The owner/manager can withdraw that consent at any time and the busker must move on.  Buskers mustn’t stay in one place for longer than 30 minutes in any two hour period. All buskers are asked to report to Council where they will be and what they will be doing; if any complaints of unreasonable noise are received Council will be asking buskers to leave.

Raffle Ticket Sellers/Charity Collectors

Any organisations wishing to sell raffle tickets or set up collection points on inner city footpaths are simply asked to phone Council to outline their intentions.  This will prevent any double ups and help ensure that only genuine groups are collecting in this way.

Consultation

Following a period of public consultation held in April the Trading in Public Places bylaw was adopted by Council at their meeting on 24 May and came into effect on 5 June 2007. The Policy Committee met on 1 May, heard from three submitters out of the 65 submissions received, and approved the Bylaw with minor modificiations.

Background

Council sought to consolidate and update two bylaws with the drafting of the Trading in Public Places Bylaw 2007.

It is replacing the Trading in Streets and Public Places Bylaw 1989 (which aimed to regulate hawkers, mobile shops and itinerant traders and stands and stalls on footpaths), as well as Trading in Streets and Public Places – Other Activities Bylaw 2002 (which aims to control activities such as busking, begging, the provision of commercial services, and advertising in public places). 

What the Bylaw set out to do

In drafting the bylaw Council considered whether there are existing ‘problems’ with ‘traders’ in public places and tried to anticipate any that could arise.

On the whole Council considers that some kind of provision for monitoring trading on the streets is essential to prevent street trading becoming prevalent. This would be unfair to established shops and could clog footpaths in the central city, making things difficult for pedestrians and other city users.

The Council also considers that street traders should have some sort of accreditation to give some security to the members of the public with whom they trade, particularly where food is involved.

The bylaw is intended to apply only to people trading or soliciting on a casual basis such as mobile shops, hawkers, providers of commercial services, people collecting donations or selling raffle tickets, and buskers.
It does not apply to those ‘carts’ or traders who occupy specific sites on the footpaths, as these businesses are already licensed by the Council as street stalls

Contact

For more information contact Administration Adviser on +64 3 546 0436.