Hawkers earning up to $1000 a day are flouting Tauranga City Council bylaws because they know they cannot be penalised.
The council's toothless bylaw was highlighted yesterday by Mount Mainstreet manager Leanne Brown who said the shopping centre continued to be "plagued" by street hawkers.
She particularly took aim at hair braidingand hemp tattoos.
"Some hair braiders have been coming for over 11 years and it is reported they make about $1000 per day. In my opinion, this is taking lots of money away from retailers."
"They don't pay rates, leases, power, phones and most likely not GST and tax, but I could be wrong."
While it could be argued that they helped the atmosphere in the shopping centre, they also blocked footpaths, she said.
Ms Brown told the council's monitoring committee that the hawkers were not supposed to be there but there was no infringement penalties in the bylaw.
She said the hawkers should be banned or shifted to Coronation Park.
The only places where hawkers could operate legally was where they obtained permission from retailers to trade on the narrow strip where some shop fronts were set back from the footpath.
Council staff agreed the bylaw contained no penalty provisions with which to pursue repeat offenders.
Meanwhile, she reported that Mount retailers had a good summer, slightly up on last year but still nowhere near the summer of 2008-09. January was really good but February was typically slow.
The busking festival weekend drew huge crowds, with more than 15,000 visitors on the Sunday, while the Christmas Festival and Santa Parade attracted 30,000 people.
