Plans for shipping container cafe on Picton foreshore scuppered

he Picton Foreshore, on the doorstep on Tōtaranui/Queen Charlotte Sound. Photo / Chloe Ranford, LDR

Plans for a restaurant in a shipping container on Picton foreshore have been sunk by a council broadside to protect "one of Marlborough's special open spaces".

A Marlborough District Council spokesman confirmed a private developer had asked to set up a "container restaurant" at the council-owned foreshore in September, but was declined, as restaurants were not a "permitted activity" at the reserve.

Documents show the proposal was discussed at a private council meeting.

"The only commercial leases permitted [on the foreshore] currently are those which complement the open, reserve experience," the spokesman said.

"The foreshore is one of Marlborough's special open spaces to be preserved and enhanced to ensure its enjoyment for future generations."

The foreshore currently had a mini-golf course, a playground and water-play area, and the Picton Community Museum.

Petal Holistic Health and Gardening Services owner Kate Fillenham says a pop-up container restaurantwould have provided more lunch options in summer. Photo / Chloe Ranford, LDR

The foreshore was governed by a reserve management plan and an urban development strategy. The council decided it would upgrade Picton's decade-old strategy for $200,000 earlier this year, as part of its 2019-20 annual plan.

In future, development proposals for the foreshore needed to align with "whatever direction the new Picton strategy confirmed", the spokesman said. He would not reveal the identity of the private developer.

Picton business owners were divided over the container restaurant.

Seabreeze Cafe and Bar owner Jules Terry said he was "not for it at all".

"I don't want a shipping container sitting on the foreshore," he said.

He was concerned the restaurant would have opened in summer, during the tourist season, but not in winter, which was tougher on businesses.

"Besides, if it had been approved, what would have happened after? Next thing you'd know, we'd have had a few more cafes and bars [on the foreshore]."

A restaurant owner, who did not want to be named, said there were already "plenty of food businesses" in Picton competing to "survive" the winter months.

He said "pop-ups", like food trucks, were "not fair on the rest of us".

Seabreeze Cafe and Bar owner Jules Terry is relieved after the Marlborough District Council scrapped an idea for a container restaurant on Picton's foreshore. Photo / Chloe Ranford, LDR

"It would be out of place. A container doesn't fit in with the foreshore at all.

"What about rubbish left down there, and all the connecting infrastructure?"

Restaurants were a popular suggestion for the foreshore during a public reserve review in 2006, alongside cafes and tourism facilities.

But ideas for a multimillion-dollar gondola and hilltop restaurant, and a hot pools and wellness centre, had divided opinion in the past.

Petal Holistic Health and Gardening Services owner Kate Fillenham said she would have liked if the restaurant had been a pop-up over summer.

"Restaurants in Picton in summer are crazy. It takes so long to get food at lunchtime, so it would be nice to have more lunch options," she said.

Helen's On High Street owner Helen Burnett says Picton needs to 'look inside the box'. Photo / Chloe Ranford, LDR

But the container would have to be "pretty" for the foreshore.

"We'd have to do plantings around it, or give it a grass roof," Fillenham said.

Helen's On High Street owner Helen Burnett said, if approved, the container restaurant would have had no shortage of customers - including herself.

"It sounds quite good," she said. "Everyone's too stodgy at the moment.

"I think Picton's got to get more out there, and look outside the box."