Queenstown Lakes District councillors have rejected proposed bylaw amendments which they said painted them as a "pack of wowsers".
The report on the review of the Control of Trading, Advertising and Obstructions in Public Places Bylaw 1989, tabled last Friday, proposed several amendments aimed at encouraging people to sell items at organised events and markets rather than hawking them on the streets, Lakes Environmental planner Richard MacGillivray said.
Proposed amendments included banning skateboards and Segways (small two-wheeled motorised vehicles) from the town centre and stopping people from putting leaflets under the windscreen wipers of cars.
Segways on Q owner Ken Hey used the public forum to object to the vehicles being included as town centre nuisances.
In two years of operation, his business had never caused any damage in the town.
Mr MacGillivray's report also called for busking and trading operations to take into account "visual amenity" - the compatibility of the "character, scale and nature of the proposed trading activity . . . with the surrounding environment"; whether the site was "appropriate"; and what mitigating steps could be taken to reduce the "potential for nuisance" and to demonstrate community and public benefits.
"My first reaction was what a pack of wowsers we are," Cr Cath Gilmour said.
"We want to make downtown vibrant . . . not stop kids selling homemade chocolates and peonies," she said.
Cr Vanessa van Uden said by putting it to submission "we look to have said we are happy with this - and I'm categorically not happy".
The bylaw has been referred back to the community services committee for more work.
