Cafe patrons hold sip-in protest at council red tape

Labour MP David Shearer outside Pyrenees Cafe in Mt Albert during a seat protest over the council, who ordered the removal of the popular seating outside the cafe. Photo / Dean Purcell

Angry patrons of a suburban cafe brought their own chairs along for a "sip-in" after its popular street-side seating was removed to meet Auckland Council rules.

The latte-fuelled protest was led by cafe regular, Mt Albert MP David Shearer, who drew attention to the plight of the Pyrenees Cafe in New North Rd on his Facebook page.

He said his interest was sparked by "an almost gleeful" attitude of the council compliance department when they found that the business did not have a resource consent to be a cafe.The seating was on land owned by the cafe's landlord - not council footpath.

He understood that the council wanted $2500 deposit to process a consent application.

"You would think that they could have handled this much better rather than take a heavy-handed approach and just get alongside the cafe people."

Council manager central resource consenting and compliance Mark White denied any "glee" said the council had tried to resolve the matter.

A traffic engineer looked at pedestrian safety and a planner visited to explain the need for a consent.He was "fairly comfortable" that a consent application would be granted.

A complaint to the council that outdoor seating next to a pedestrian crossing was a safety hazard was not upheld.

However, it turned out that though the premises had been a chemist shop, the District Plan zoning required a consent for a cafe, in order to make sure it did not cause ill effects, such as traffic safety issues.

"We did not force them to remove it," said Mr White.

"We suggested they either take the seating away or they apply for resource consent to get it regularised."

Mr White said the operator promised to apply for a consent next week and because it seemed that requirements could be met a $1500 fee would apply.