Tauranga Commissioners want flexibility for mobile traders

Holly Shaw owns Coffee and Cones, a coffee and icecream caravan. Photo / John Borren

A mobile trader based at Omanu Beach that caters to "sandy children and those in need of a quick caffeine fix" is asking Tauranga City Council for assurance around the ability to continue trading in their current location.

Holly Shaw and her partner Chris Donovan own Coffee and Cones, an icecream and coffee caravan, and have created a community around their business in the year it has been trading at the popular Mount Maunganui beach.

Council staff were proposing to limit the spaces available to mobile traders to one spot at the Omanu Beach carpark, prompting Shaw to make a submission to the Strategy, Finance and Risk Committee Meeting on Monday.

Her concern was: "restricting trade in the carpark would be incredibly detrimental to business because it is entirely built on word-of-mouth and relationships with locals and beachgoers".

Commissioners and committee members backed Shaw's stance, asking staff to look again at the policy recommendations to ensure flexibility for traders.

Mobile shops require a licence that enables them to operate at a number of locations within the Tauranga City boundary.

Certain mobile trader spots have a restricted number and are operated on a "first come, first serve" basis and others are tendered.

The proposal put to council recommended limiting mobile trading sites to one at the Omanu Beach carpark and Gordon Carmichael Reserve in Bethlehem, as well as adding an extra site to Gordon Spratt Reserve in Pāpāmoa, Greerton Park, and Carlton Reserve in Bellevue.

Shaw is one of 89 mobile shop licence holders in Tauranga and is the only trader at Omanu Beach.

She said if she had to compete for their spot it would mean "starting all over again".
The site Shaw uses at the moment is an open site, but she would be happy to tender for the site if that meant having it on a permanent basis.

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said: "People like Holly are doing a great job".

"They put the investment in, they're working with the community, they're providing a service," she said.

"The tendency is to come in and make all these rules and regulations and, almost punish the people that have created the problem because she's been so successful."

Tolley wants the policy to find a balance between managing mobile trading sites effectively and providing workability for users because they do "add a lot of life and colour" to the city.

"From the staff's point of view, it's about how you manage it better," she said.

"And we're [the committee] saying: 'well you need to manage it in such a way that doesn't shut out the existing users and gives you the flexibility to go further where it's appropriate'.

"We can't make it so restrictive that new innovation can't happen."

Shaw is "stoked" with the support she has received from the committee for her business and said she has a great relationship with the council.

"I think it would be great if there was a difference between the true mobile traders who change their position all the time, versus the people that have made one place their home," she said.

Once options for the policy change have been agreed on by the committee, they will be open for public submissions through the Tauranga City Council website.