Residential brothel ban in Nelson

A bylaw to regulate the sex industry in Nelson will include a ban on brothels in residential areas.

Nelson City Council planning and consents divisional manager Rod Witte said a draft bylaw would go before an environment and planning committee meeting next month.

The ban would be included in the bylaw but this was already the case under the council's resource management plan, Mr Witte said.

But Nelson businessman Shane Mark and New Zealand Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy said doing this would encourage the secrecy that plagued the industry before the Prostitution Reform Act was passed last year.

Mr Mark operates two residential brothels in Tahunanui. He has been trying to set up an escort agency and exotic dance club in the inner city since the act was passed but has had no luck finding a venue to lease.