Retailers may assume they will be able to trade on Easter Sunday, as they have for the past seven years, but that right has not yet been confirmed for 2025.

Gisborne District Council’s existing Easter Sunday Shop Trading Policy is due to lapse on March 1.

The council, sitting on Thursday for the first time in 2025, is due to adopt a new policy and have a public consultation process, which may allow for a decision to be made in time for Easter 2025.

The recommended option for councillors to support is a Statement of Proposal that would result in a 2025 policy unchanged from the 2018 policy, which would allow Easter Sunday trade from this year.

The agenda before councillors states an earlier review of the policy was put on hold because of a Private Member’s Bill being introduced to Parliament, which, if passed into law, would have removed the need for local Easter trading policies.

But that bill did not pass the first reading.

If the Statement of Proposal is adopted, consultation will be open from February 4 to March 5.

A second option available for councillors is to direct a full review of the Easter Sunday and public consultation. The option, if adopted, would mean no Easter Sunday trading in 2025.

A third option available to councillors would be to do nothing, meaning the current policy would lapse, resulting in the loss of Easter Sunday trading from 2025.