City councillors are today expected to pass a policy preventing Tauranga from taking part in the night time mobile restaurant revival transforming night time eating in other centres.

The sunset clause in the mobile shops policy expressly prevents any mobile food vendor from operating after the sun goes down.

Council is expected to pass its mobile traders policy today.

Council team leader of environmental health, Darien Daubney, says the policy is intended to prevent mobile shops trading on the roadside after sunset.

'At the night market because they are not trading on the road, the trading after sunset doesn't apply,” says Darien.

The policy is for traffic safety issues, says Darien. Mobile shops are still able to trade at an event or a public area off the side of the road.

'Maybe it needs to be made clearer in the policy,” says Darien.

The clause in the policy says mobile shops may only trade from sunrise to sunset. There is no qualification, and it stops in its tracks any public access in Tauranga to a flourishing mobile restaurant scene that is now a feature of towns like Cambridge, Auckland, other cities in New Zealand and overseas.

The focus of the policy has been on administering the tendered licences on Marine Parade - between Grace Avenue and Pacific Avenue from 26 December to 6 February.

The number of the 12 car parks that can be bid for, and how those parks will be divided among the competing businesses is also part of the policy. A single vendor can tender for a maximum of three car parks for one mobile shop, and no one operator will be allocated all of the car parks.

For the rest of the year mobile shops are permitted to trade from sunrise to sunset on Marine Parade between Grace Avenue and Pacific Avenue, but they my only take up a maximum of two car parks.

Operating a mobile shop on the city's sports reserves on Saturday mornings was also an issue debated by council with input from the operators and sports clubs.

The solution is to require traders who want to sell coffee at the netball courts to tender for another licence in addition to the mobile trader's licence, and to restrict numbers that can trade at the various reserves.

An application fee may be charged. Council may require a tender deposit to be submitted with the application in addition to the application fee.

The tender deposit will be refunded if the tender is unsuccessful. If the tender is successful, the deposit will be retained and deducted from the amount owing in respect of the licence fee.

Each application that conforms with the tender conditions will be assessed against criteria groups and given percentage weightings based on their importance to Council. Seventy per cent of the criteria is bundled with; Enhancement of visitor experience and relevance to site. Council says it's looking for a range of mobile shop operators to provide a variety of food and beverage options for beach users. The appearance of the operation has to be ‘appropriate' for the area, and the number of car park spaces required.

A total of 15 per cent of the weighting relies upon the tenderer's track record and previous experience delivering the activity/operation tendered.

The third weighting is 15 per cent on price. The tendered licence fee has to equal or exceed the base licence fee set annually through the Annual Plan.

Council also has control over the hours or days of the week during which, or on which operators of mobile shops may operate.

It limits the type or classes of food, goods or articles which may be sold pursuant to a mobile shop licence. And it can fix alter or abolish fees payable to it for any licence or permit.