After being reprimanded for unsafe parking by a Whakatāne District Council staff member last week, an Ōhope food truck collective wants the council to show them more support.

The vendors will be meeting with council staff today where they hope to have an opportunity to express their views and come to a safe arrangement that suits all.

Louis Desbats, who began selling wood-fired pizzas from a converted bus in Ōpōtiki and Ōhope 15 years ago, says a loose collective of about four food trucks has formed over the past few months, in the Pohutukawa Avenue carpark in front of Maraetotara Reserve.

They served a variety of food from about 4.30pm to 8pm.

“For me, I find it quite reasonable, because we are on the main street and it is a 50km/h zone. We line up at the back of the carpark and leave space at the front for people to come in to pull up.”

He says last Thursday, a council staff member arrived at the site and without stating who he was, started taking pictures.

“Then he came to me and straight away, without introducing himself, started saying that what we were doing was totally illegal and unsafe. I think he thought I was the ringleader, because I have been here the longest.

"He was quite harsh with us."

Wood-fired pizza maker Louis Desbats is concerned that Whakatāne District Council might shut down food trucks at Maraetotara. 

Louis says he's happy to talk to council about any concerns but the staff member’s approach has been off-putting.

“For me it is more about how he did it. We’re in New Zealand, we can be friendly,” he says.

After a post on his Facebook page warning customers that the council may be shutting them down, there has been an outpouring of anger toward the council.

Council transportation manager Ann-Elise Reynolds says the council supports the initiative, which has brought vibrancy to the community and is growing in popularity as a result.

No directive has been given for it to be shut down.

“The intention of the staff member who spoke to vendors was to make initial contact with them to develop a collaborative approach to making the event not only safer, but better for all,” she says.

“The growing popularity of the event is a significant driver for the need to make safety improvements, recognising many of the customers are families with children, and the event is currently situated next to a main road during the hours of darkness.”

She says some small, simple changes will be discussed today with the aim of enhancing the event and improving the safety of all patrons.

As an alternative to the current site, Louis says he will like to see them being able to set up on the grass reserve itself.

“There’s a playground, there’s a green space, there are toilet blocks, next to the car parks. With the summer coming it would be good to be there two or three times a week."

This is not the first food truck collective in Whakatāne Louiss has been involved with.

The Food Truck Village was held pre-covid at Wharaurangi on The Strand, from January 2021.

This was never fully revived after the second wave of Covid-19 restrictions.

Food truck customers pulled up on the edge of busy Pohutukawa Avenue had council staff concerned about traffic safety.

“Covid has been really tough on food trucks. It killed pretty much 80 percent of the (food truck businesses) that were running before.”

He says while the council has been quite happy about the Food Truck Village, it has required them to follow a lot of rules around providing toilets and traffic management.

“For something that is quite easy to organise, they make it complicated.”

He feels the council should be more proactive in encouraging food truck collectives.

“Most of the councils in New Zealand are quite proactive about it.

“If you get in touch with Kawerau (district council) about a food truck, they straight away give you a map showing which parts you can set up. Rotorua has its own food truck car park. There is nothing like this in Whakatāne.

“They could make it safe for the food trucks and the customers by having a dedicated space for it.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.