'It's our livelihood' - Devastated café owners face ruin as council slashes chair numbers

November 5, 2018

Central Otago District Council at first told the couple they could only have 12.

More than 2000 people have signed a petition for the local council to allow more seats at a café in the small Central Otago town of Bannockburn.

Seven Sharp reports co-owners Jimmy Fairweather and Katie Funnell have poured their life savings into The Black Rabbit café, and are playing a stressful game of musical chairs with the the Central Otago District Council.

The council told the couple just before Labour Day that they were only allowed 12 chairs inside their café, plus 12 outside - a total of 24. That's despite the fact they had bought a café with more than 70 chairs.

"It's our livelihood. It was embarrassing coming into your own work to have 12 seats. It's just awful really, just hard," Ms Funnell said, crying.

The couple have a baby on the way and the whole business could fold if they're not allowed to increase the seat count.

The council's CEO, Sanchia Jacobs, said the consent was initially set at 24 seats, and "over time more patrons have been allowed in there, not just from these owners, from previous owners, too".

She said a limit is placed on chair numbers because the café is in a residential zone.

"So right backing onto that café there's neighbours and there's people living there. And they also have the right to live in peace at their house."

Bannockburn resident Duncan Faulkner says a local person started a petition "and it has kind of gone viral after that with people around New Zealand".

Ms Funnell said  over 2000 people signed the petition in a day or two.

Co-owner Jimmy Fairweather said there are "some very underhanded tactics going on". 

"We've had complaints about trading outside of our liquor licence on a Thursday night. We're not even open on a Thursday night."

In the latest twist, the council has increased the chair limit to 36.

It has advised the couple to apply for a new consent to bring the numbers up to where they were before.

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