Mayor's vote swings brothel ban

4.00pm

Prostitutes will be banned from working at home after Tauranga Mayor Jan Beange used her casting vote to introduce a new bylaw banning residential brothels.

In a tense and often angry turnaround from its position three weeks ago, Tauranga City Council yesterday decided by the narrowest of margins to introduce a bylaw that restricts brothels to the city's industrial and main commercial areas.

With voting split 7-7 on the controversial issue of whether prostitutes should be allowed to entertain clients at home, it was left to Ms Beange to exercise her casting vote.

She opted to hold her stance, infuriating opposing councillors who believed the council had struck its final position on the draft bylaw on February 25.

The mayor's intention to reignite the issue was clearly signalled by the tabling of an alternatively worded bylaw.

Ms Beange opened the debate by highlighting correspondence from a church minister who had clipped out a newspaper advertisement which purported to show that prostitutes were working from an apartment block at Mount Maunganui.

Cr David Stewart immediately moved that the council accept the revised bylaw wording which banned brothels from residential areas.

Cr Stewart said that under the old laws, prostitutes working at home kept their activities under wraps. Legalising home brothels would give neighbours no rights to do anything about it, even if they had strong moral feelings and wanted to protect their families.

The council decided that brothels with discreet signs should be allowed in all the city's industrial areas, the Tauranga, Greerton and Mount shopping districts and the Cameron Rd commercial strip down to 11th Ave.

The bylaw now goes out for public consultation before returning to the council for final consideration on June 24.

Cr Brad Shipton warned that the council would drive suburban prostitutes underground and so go against objectives of the Prostitution Reform Act to bring the industry out into the open.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES