City retailers keen on Easter trading

Dunedin could soon follow the lead of Wanaka in allowing shops to open on Easter Sunday.

Retailers in Wanaka were given approval to open legally on Easter Sunday for the first time after the Queenstown Lakes District Council voted earlier this year to relax the rules prohibiting most retailers from opening.

The change came after the Government last year voted to give local councils the power to legalise trading on Easter Sunday.

Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan said most retailers in Dunedin supported having the choice to open on Easter Sunday.

There had been positive discussions between the chamber and the Dunedin City Council (DCC) and the council would ``without a doubt'' decide on the issue before next Easter, Mr McGowan said.

The council, like other larger councils around the country, was taking a considered approach, consulting with retailers and not rushing changes through.

There was not the same urgency in Dunedin as in Wanaka, where retailers had been calling for the rules to be relaxed for years.

Surveys of retailers showed while most supported having the choice to open, a lot would decide not to.

Retailers were already limited in the number of days they could take off each year.

``It's quite a complex issue.

``For example, if one shop in a mall opens, they all have to.''

Centrefire McCarthy's Stream and Field Store managing director Selwyn Shanks said Dunedin following Wanaka's lead was a no-brainer.

He would have opened his Moray Pl shop if the DCC had made the change and did not see any reason why shops should close to cater for the small proportion of New Zealand's population who were practising Christians.

He would go further than allowing shops to open on Easter Sunday and ``firmly believed'' retailers should have the choice to open every day of the year.

Many shop owners in Wanaka seemed to have the same view and as well as taking advantage of the change also opened on Good Friday in defiance of the law.

Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean, a longtime advocate for Easter trading, said rather than pushing for further relaxation of the rules, people should ``appreciate and consolidate the gains that we have made''.

``I'm pretty happy with the rules as they are,'' Mrs Dean said.

``I think it's a good start.''

There was support in Parliament for trading on Easter Sunday to be liberalised because it was a day of celebration, which was different from Good Friday.

She believed shops in Dunedin and Waitaki would have missed out on trading because councils in both areas had not adopted new policies for trading on Easter Sunday.

``I would imagine that after this year there may well be retailers calling on their mayors and councils to enable the legislation so they can open next year.''

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said last week the district would have liked to have had a policy in place for this Easter, but other council matters took priority.

So far, 25 councils have passed bylaws to allow shops to open on Easter Sunday.

vaughan.elder@odt.co.nz