A clause inadvertently forbidding mobile ice cream sellers from city suburbs has been removed from the city's mobile trading draft bylaw that will now go out for public consultation.

Tauranga City Councillors yesterday decided to amend the clause that would have prevented traders like Mr Whippy from selling in streets with houses on both sides.

It was originally intended to prevent traders from operating in the Papamoa Beach Road area.

Mr Whippy will be allowed to continue operating in Tauranga's suburbs.

The mobile trading draft bylaw was one of the three bylaws – along with freedom camping and liquor free zones - approved for public consultation.

The draft liquor free bylaw is a move to take advantage of existing legislation before the law changes taking effect in December make creating liquor free zones a much more evidential process.

In response to public pressure the council is going ahead with new liquor free zones in Greerton, Papamoa and Brookfield, as well as rolling over the existing liquor bans in the central city and Mount Maunganui.

Mauao is also to be included at the request of the owners - the Mauao Trust. The council is unable to legally enforce a liquor ban over land it does not own.

The issue about the extent of a liquor ban on Papamoa Beach was sidestepped by councillors, who said the ban will only be in force between 9pm and 7am.

The freedom camping bylaw only needed minor tweaking to remove the vehicular inaccessible Beach Road Esplanade reserve from the list of city parks and reserves that will be open for use by mobile campers.

There was a brief discussion about council liability over camper vans being locked into various parks and reserves overnight. It was decided that anyone who wanted to be let out of a locked park at night could call the council's security service, like everyone else.

Councillors were concerned mobile campers will use park rubbish bins for camper van rubbish, sparking a brief flurry of debate over whether camper van rubbish is household rubbish.

Public feedback will be considered before the bylaws are enacted.