​You will need an outdoor dining licence if you plan to have furniture or customers eating or drinking on the footpath or public space outside your cafe or restaurant.

Check What is a public place?

• Leave at least 1.8m of clear footpath for pedestrians around your outdoor dining area. In high volume areas you may need to leave more space.
• Outdoor dining areas are public space. This licence only gives permission to use the space for a period of time while the business is operating.
• All outdoor dining licences end at 12 midnight. If you trade past this time, you must remove the furniture from the public space and store it until you are ready to close.
• It is your responsibility to keep the area clean and tidy. Street cleaners often cannot access outdoor dining areas.
• Outdoor dining licences are valid for 12 months. A six month option is also available for areas that can only be used in summer. The fees are made up of two parts: an annual licensing fee and a rental fee per square meter of space occupied.
• Streets where pedestrians and vehicles share the street (shared space e.g. Elliot Street) have slightly different rules of use. Email our team for more information.
• Premises with outdoor dining licences must be smokefree from January 2018.

Rules for furniture

• Furniture must be movable, not permanently fixed. You must store all tables, chairs, planter boxes, barriers, umbrellas and outdoor heaters inside the premises at the end of each trading day.
• Furniture must be suitable for all weather conditions and continuous use. You must remove broken furniture immediately to avoid accidents.
• You may use barriers and planter boxes within the area but you must not enclose more than 50 per cent of the area (except the building frontage).
• You may use umbrellas if there is no building veranda. You must weigh down the umbrella stands with removable weights such as sand bags.

​Send us your application form, along with:

• your food licence number
• a sketch of the area you wish to occupy, including any dimensions. 

Example of an outdoor dining aerial sketch

​You can estimate what your licence will cost using our licence fee calculator. Fees can only be confirmed by a Bylaws Officer.

Visit Ways to pay online for information on all payment options.

We will register your outdoor dining licence within 10 days of receiving your application.

We will contact you if we need more information or if there are any problems with your application. This could delay the registration process. 

You will need to re-apply for an outdoor dining licence before your current licence expires.

We will send you a notice before your licence expires. You can still apply online if you do not receive the notice by email or post.

When you re-apply, you will need to include:

• your NZBN company number
• a copy of your Certificate of Incorporation
• your food licence number
• your alcohol licence number (if you are serving alcohol)
• a sketch of the area you wish to occupy, including any dimension measurements.

We review all re-applications the same way as a new application. We cannot guarantee we will approve your re-application.

Email our team for more information.