Far North District Council unveils plan to revive lapsed bylaws

Far North bylaws coming up for renewal include Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees, which also sets out the district's cat rules. Photo / John Stone

Far North residents will be able to have a say early next year on a raft of council bylaws which were accidentally revoked.

Dogged inquiries by lobby group the Bay of Islands Watchdogs earlier this year revealed that seven Far North District Council bylaws had lapsed because they hadn't been renewed within the required timeframes.

At a council meeting in Kaitaia last week, staff presented a plan to revive the revoked bylaws.

The plan calls for immediate action on two bylaws — Land Drainage and Control of Earthworks — which require little change. They will go out for consultation this month and could be adopted in October.

Five other bylaws — Public Places, Vehicle Crossings, Mobile Shops and Hawkers, Reserves, and Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees — will be discussed in an upcoming workshop. Some could be combined to reduce the total number of bylaws.

Consultation is scheduled for January-February 2020, with adoption in April 2020.

One bylaw, Amusement Devices and Entertainment Premises, has been superseded by legislation and won't be renewed, while a review of the Trade Waste bylaw will be delayed so it can form part of an upcoming revenue review project.

Councillors agreed to the bylaw review schedule.

However, Dave Hookway said he was concerned the council was rushing the new bylaws through.

''Some of these bylaws expired in 2016. I keep hearing that staff can't keep up with their workstream ... I think it should wait until the new council comes in,'' he said.

Kelly Stratford was concerned the consultation period coincided with summer holidays or, for those who worked in tourism, the busiest time of year. She called for the consultation to be delayed until March.

John Vujcich wanted an assurance the systems failure that had allowed the bylaws to lapse wouldn't happen again.

Planning manager Darrell Sargent said the council now had enough staff to handle the work, and systems had been changed so bylaws were no longer abandoned when staff left the organisation.

''We now keep a close eye on bylaws, it's one of our core responsibilities. It's much less likely to happen again.''

Bylaws have to be reviewed every five years (for new bylaws) or 10 years (for bylaws which have already been through one review).