The court ruled last week that two key provisions of the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s Activities in Public Places Bylaw 2023 were ‘‘flawed’’.
The reserved decision follows a judicial review hearing in Invercargill last month in which street food vendor Danna Burton and the Queenstown Lakes District Street Food Vendors Society argued the two rules had been included in the bylaw without proper public consultation.
Judge Graham Lang ruled the two conditions imposed on vendors — to move every hour or stop trading for 30 minutes, and to keep at least 50m apart from each other — could no longer be enforced.
Ms Burton, who represented the group in court despite not being a lawyer, told Allied Media the legal challenge achieved everything the society wanted.
The case was not just about street food vendors, but the public’s right to fair consultation under the Local Government Act, she said.
“It’s about process, fairness, and whether decisions that affect people’s ability to earn a living are made transparently and in good faith.”
In the decision, Judge Lang said the two conditions had applied only to buskers in the 2016 bylaw, but were extended to street food vendors late in the bylaw review process in 2023 — after public consultation had closed.
There was ‘‘no rational justification’’ for applying an hourly relocation rule to food and retail stalls, and the 50m spacing rule appeared ‘‘arbitrary’’.
The bylaw review process had been “flawed’’ because it failed to hear from those directly affected, he said.
Ms Burton said after two years of having her offers to engage with the council rebuffed, staff were now talking to her and the society on a new framework, within the existing bylaw, to regulate stallholders.
The society wanted a ‘‘very strict’’ framework worked out, with a cap on the number of stallholder permits, she said.
And it was ‘‘fair and reasonable’’ for stallholders to pay for those permits.
Her message to council was ‘‘we want to work alongside you’’.
‘‘We’ll do the dirty work day in, day out, and keep each other accountable so you don’t have to spend resources on this.’’
She said vendors acted as informal ambassadors for Queenstown by providing directions, recommendations and a welcoming presence for visitors.
A meeting of society members with council staff is planned for later this month.
The decision comes a month after councillors decided to extend a 12-month prohibition on new permits for pop-up stalls on the lakefront, and to extend that prohibition to previously permitted areas in Beach St and Queenstown Mall.
Stallholders who were registered last April, when the prohibition was first imposed, were allowed to keep trading until their permits expired.
Ms Burton said a small number were still trading because of an undertaking she was given by the council last year, through the High Court, to allow the society’s members to keep trading.
A council spokesman told Allied Media the council was not making “any public comments about the decision or its merits’’ until the court had addressed the matter of costs between the parties.
‘‘However, the decision does not affect enforcement of the bylaw, except for a declaration on two discrete conditions relating to the spacing and the time pop-up stalls may operate in one space.
‘‘Other than this, the bylaw remains intact, with the High Court confirming council’s powers.’’
