Bannockburn cafe faces 12-seat limit as Central Otago District Council clamps down

Bannockburn cafe was told to remove most of the seats within the business or it would have to cease operating. Photo/Facebook.

The owners of a Bannockburn cafe found to have almost three times the seating its consent permitted are working with Central Otago District Council (CODC) staff to resolve the issue.

But the cafe owners have criticised the CODC's handling of the matter, which resulted in most of the cafe's seating removed over Labour Weekend and customers sitting on the floor in protest.

Black Rabbit Kitchen & Bar owners Jimmy Fairweather and Katie Funnell said council staff visited just before Labour Weekend and said the non-compliant seating needed to be removed for them to be allowed to continue operating.

They criticised the timing of the visit, and said communication from council staff had been poor.

CODC planning and environment manager Louise van der Voort said council had ''never'' told the cafe it would have to close, and had been dealing with the cafe owners since May over issues, including public complaints and consent.

Van der Voort said the timing of visit just before Labour Weekend was a coincidence and ''purely because it fitted'', being a follow-up to an earlier visit that week.

Fairweather said he had recently discovered the consent for the cafe, opened in 2006 in a residential zone and with several different owners, was for 12 seats inside and 12 outside.

He and Miss Funnell took the cafe over a year ago, when it had about 60 seats inside and outside.

They acknowledged ''caveat emptor'' or ''let the buyer beware'', but said ''you would never think to check'' the seating allowed.

Fairweather said council staff had told them permission from all cafe neighbours would allow them the extra seats for Labour Weekend. They had secured all but two consents, from people out of the district they could not contact. Their consents had now been pledged.

Staff then said they would process the permissions during Labour Weekend, but did not respond to an email. So the owners took away the extra seating during the holiday weekend, and some in the community came and sat on the floor in protest.

He acknowledged complaints about the business had been made. Van der Voort declined to comment on the nature of these.

Fairweather said he shared some Bannockburn residents' concerns about traffic, and had suggested a masterplan for Bannockburn be created.