City council orders McDonald's outlet to close by 1am

Nelson's late-night revellers may have to find a new place for a feed as McDonald's Rutherford St outlet has been found in breach of the Nelson City Council's resource management plan following a noise complaint.

Council compliance monitoring manager Bob Askew said the McDonald's outlet had been served with an abatement notice banning it from operating past 1am on Saturday and Sunday.

During the week the restaurant must close by 11pm and cannot open before 7am. The notice takes effect on August 1.

However, McDonald's franchisees could apply to the Environment Court for a stay against the notice if they wanted to seek resource consent to extend the restaurant's opening hours, he said.

The notice was served after the restaurant was found to be in breach of the plan, which restricts the opening times for any commercial premises less than 50m from a residential zone. A survey found it to be 44.73m away.

The council looked into the issue after receiving a complaint from Palace backpacker hostel owner Dave Enting who said late-night noise from the fast-food outlet was costing him business.

Nelson McDonald's franchisee Matt Smith said he was working through the issue of reduced opening hours with his lawyer and the council.

Mr Smith said the Nelson outlet had been open 24 hours in the weekends and from 6am to midnight during the week, and the restricted hours would have a considerable impact on his business.

"At the moment the busiest time is when the hotels close. Between 3am and 4am is the busiest time on the overnight shift."

He said restricted hours for the outlet would mean that the Shell service station on Rutherford St was pretty much the only place open for people in town to buy food late at night.

Mr Smith said the store had been operating for 24 hours in the weekend for only about nine months and had just found out it was in breach of the council rules.

He hoped a solution would be found by the August deadline.

Mr Enting, whose hostel is across the road and up the hill from McDonald's, said he was pleased an abatement notice had been served, but was disappointed it had taken the council so long to act.

Mr Enting said two weeks ago he had called the council and told staff he had "a 50m piece of rope, a chain and padlock that was going to go on McDonald's door at 1am". He did not carry out his threat.

It was only since then that the council had acted, he said.

If McDonald's received resource consent for extended opening hours, the council's resource management plan "was not worth the paper it's printed on", he said.

He has claimed noise from the outlet and the Shell station had cost his business $35,000 over the past four years.

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