A change to the time when restaurants on The Strand have to move their outdoor furniture is being sought by Tauranga City Councillors Bill Grainger and Murray Guy.
The dining to drinking change over presently happens at about 4pm – a time many restaurants find is losing them customers.
Bill and Murray on The Strand.
Some bar owners want the change to occur at 9pm to take advantage of the natural business lull that occurs at that time. This is when they say the diners leave and is before the first of the late night drinkers start arriving at about 10pm.
The present regime was introduced in 2009 to give the bars an opportunity to properly control their outside Licence to Occupy area. At that time the outside drinking areas were separated from the bars by the public footpath – a public space that bar security had no control over.
A decision was made to move the public walkway nearer the street frontage of the paved area, requiring bars to move their outdoor seating. The time set for the move was 4pm.
'Four pm reduces the amount of patronage they can have seated for a meal,” says Councillor Murray Guy.
He and fellow Tauranga City Councillor Bill Grainger were approached this week by a bar owner who reported the timing of the furniture shift was causing a loss of turnover.
In reply, the councillors say they will bring the matter up with the city council.
3 comments
Blood Flow
Posted on 09-03-2010 16:52 | By Pat
This will lead to blood flowing in the street over Winter. Why should we have to run out from under cover into the rain to get around a caged group of people. Pedestrians surly must be allowed to walk under cover and not be forced to change their path so Bars can have the footpath to trade on ?. People from overseas must laugh their tits off ...At 4 oclock in the afternood the people of Tauranga arnt grown up enuf to have an after work drink without being caged....God we must be a horrible Town to be in eh The Council are no good at sorting out licened premises and the Police seem not better Both Just want to ban everything
Let the professionals manage
Posted on 09-03-2010 16:33 | By philiphallen
Oh why dosent the council keep its nose out of the bar owners business and let them decide what is required to run their business at a profit. The restrictions imposed on the bars over the most profitable time of the year must have been a disaster for many of them. As a regular user and patron of the Strand facilities I believe you have distroyed the atmostphere over the summer period and it has been the quietest that I have experienced in 3 1/2 years. Most of the crowd control required is usually well after midnight and not during the relaxed dining period up to that point. People who walk up and down the Strand now have to put up with any inclement weather and try to avoid tripping over the legs of the many barriers the the bar owners have had to purchase. I counted 16 people tripping ouside the Cornerstone alone in less than forty minutes, and no they were not intoxicated.
BUTT OUT COUNCIL
Posted on 10-03-2010 11:28 | By commonsense
I think we are all sick of this council. They need some younger pro active members. They spend all of their time working out what we cant do instead of creating a vision and progressing positively. Leave bar owners and the drinking/dining public alone.
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