The new Kapiti District Council bylaw, which sparked fears of rampant nudity on the region's beaches, moved one step closer to implementation this morning to little fanfare.
Council communications manager Tony Cronin said the regulatory management committee meeting today, which approved the bylaw, passed surprisingly quietly; although the council had not expected such a fuss over the bylaw in the first place.
In fact, it was exactly the same as the old one, which was exactly the same as that used by every other area in the Wellington region, Mr Cronin said.
It was approved by the regulatory management committee today and would now go before the full council.
While the amended Beach Bylaw 2009 banned motorbikes and allowed fires in some areas, what irked some groups and caught the media's attention was the provision allowing anyone to apply for a section of the beach to be defined as "clothing optional".
When the perceived threat of nudists hit the headlines, the council was flooded with complaints.
"Once again, the protection of families and the welfare of our children are being cast aside in favour of so-called freedom of expression and tolerance to nakedness," Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said.
However, the provision was also in the 2002 bylaw, and to date not one person had made an application for a nudist area, Mr Cronin said.
As an extra security measure, any application could only be approved after full public consultation.
"(So) when we went to rewrite the bylaw last year, the view was it was something that could be managed under the Summary Offences Act 1981," Mr Cronin said.
This means anyone who wished to strip down on the sand was entitled to, in the same way as they could in almost any public place, so long as it did not cause offence to anyone.
"In other words, you just call the police and they come and sort it out."
If the bylaw is signed off by the full council it will come into force on September 1, in time for the summer beach season.
- NZPA
Nudity bylaw passed
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