Draft Easter Sunday Shop Trading Policy 2022

Introduction

We’ve had a policy in place since 2017 that allows all shops in the Taupō District to trade on Easter Sunday. This gives retailers the option to open their shop on Easter Sunday and customers the option to go shopping.

We have to review our policy because it’s nearly five years old. We don’t think we need to change much, but we need your feedback so we can make our decision.

Why do we have a Local Easter Sunday Shop Trading Policy?

The Shop Trading Act 1990 restricts the trading of shops on Easter Sunday. According to the act a shop is a place where goods are kept, sold, or offered for sale. There are some shops that have exemptions outlined in the Act. For example, garden centres, dairies, supermarkets, Duty Free stores, pharmacies, and food take-aways are permitted to open on Easter Sunday.

The Act was changed in 2016 to allow councils to have a local Easter Sunday shop trading policy. A policy can permit all shops to open on Easter Sunday, in an entire district or in specified parts of a district. A policy can not include any other conditions in which shops may open e.g. permit only some types of shops to open or specify times at which shops may open.

Taupō Central already has a historical exemption to the Easter trading rules from 1989. This means that even without a Council policy the Taupō town centre can remain open from 10am-3pm.

The main reason for our current policy, is that the current exemption for just Taupō Town Centre creates rules that are not evenly applied across the whole district. We believe that the rules should be the same for everyone.

Our proposal

We propose that the Easter Sunday Trading policy be continued as it provides clarity and ensures a level playing field across the district for all shops.

This would continue our existing policy with an amendment to the review period. This amendment will change the review period from five to ten years. A five-year review was previously required under the Act but is not required for subsequent Easter Sunday trading policies.

While there is no requirement for a review period, we believe ten years is appropriate as this is best practice to ensure the relevance of our policies.

Before we make a decision, we need your feedback on the following two options:

1. Adopt the amended policy (PDF, 88KB) - this means all shops will continue to be allowed to open on Easter Sunday in the Taupō district if they choose to. OR
2. Revoke the policy - so only shops permitted by the Act and the Taupō Central exemption will be allowed to open on Easter Sunday.

What the policy cannot do?

• Require all shops to open.
• Regulate the hours shops that choose to open.
• Require employees to work on Easter Sunday. Under legislation employees have the ability to refuse to work on Easter Sunday, provided notice is given within a reasonable timeframe.
• Affect the existing Taupō town centre exemption or other exemptions such as food and beverage, pharmacies, garden centres etc that are already permitted to open.

Submissions

Submissions closed on Monday 31 October 2022.

Thank you for all of the submissions received.