Public Places Bylaw 2008

The Public Places Bylaw 2008 was adopted by Council on 19 June 2008. This Bylaw comes into force on 1 July 2008.

The new Bylaw’s purpose is to balance the different needs and preferences of our community in relation to public places, in order to balance private use with public use.

The new Bylaw:

• requires anyone wanting to undertake a commercial activity or to create an obstruction in a public place to get permission from the Council
• enables the Council to declare Special Use Areas to prohibit or allow activities in specific areas
• prevents people from temporarily residing or sleeping in motorhomes, caravans or tents in public places, unless the area had been set aside for that purpose, and
• prevents barbed, razor or electrified wire from being used in fencing in a way that could endanger public safety.

The new Bylaw covers:

• the regulation of commercial activities in public places
• the regulation of obstructions in public places
• allowing the Council to declare Special Use Areas by resolution (this could allow
• or prevent certain activities in certain areas)
• regulating to prevent barbed, razor or electrified wire from within certain distances of public places.

Submissions on the bylaw were made to the Council from 15 March to 16 April 2008 and hearings were held on 28 April 2008. The Panel deliberated on 29 April. The report of the Hearings Panel is available on the Council’s website.

The new Bylaw revokes and replaces the following:

• The Christchurch City Public Places And Signs Bylaw 2003
• parts of the Banks Peninsula District Council Public Places and Signs Bylaw 2004 and
• the Banks Peninsula Mobile and Travelling Shops, and Hawkers and Itinerant Traders Bylaw 1996.

Copies of the Bylaw are available at service centres, Council libraries and on the Council’s website at www.ccc.govt.nz/bylaws.