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Auckland Council is lobbying government for changes to bylaw enforcement – without change, High Court costs land on the ratepayers, staff say.
Last year Council concluded two bylaw prosecutions, and there was one prosecution concluded earlier this year.
The external legal costs for one of the prosecutions was $51,660 which received a $5700 fine.
Licensing and Regulatory Compliance general manager James Hassall says those legal costs landed on the ratepayer.
“Prosecuting someone is expensive, and that cost is carried by ratepayers,” Hassall says.
He says Council operates on a graduated enforcement model where prosecution is only done as a last resort.
“Council has no ability to issue infringement on bylaws meaning the options were to ask someone to stop or to prosecute them,” Hassall says. “The maximum penalty for a successful prosecution is $20,000 but courts usually impose penalties for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars depending on all the circumstances of the case.”
He says the courts do not usually award costs to the council after a successful prosecution.
“If the government passed legislation allowing infringement notices to be issued for breaches of bylaws, that would give the council a more cost-effective and efficient means of obtaining compliance,” Hassall says.
Mayor Phil Goff is advocating for change in government legislation to empower local authorities to enforce bylaws more effectively.
“We need measures that can be implemented quickly and decisively to enforce the rules, provide a greater deterrent, and ensure accountability without going to court,” Goff says.
Goff says the court costs would often be thousands of dollars in ratepayer money only to achieve a fine of hundreds of dollars.
Regulatory committee chair Linda Cooper says council has been lobbying for change to central government for as long as she has been in council – about nine years.
“There are only a few infringement fees we can give, but they are actually prescribed by government legislation. You can get a traffic ticket from Auckland Transport but that is through the Land Transport Act,” Cooper says.
She says Council has been encouraged by staff, councillors and the public to lobby central government for “more teeth” on bylaw enforcement.
“To take someone to court we have to feel we have a really high chance of winning to make that expense worthwhile,” Cooper says. “Quite often the amount of money spent is so out of wack with what the punishment is.”
Cooper says the public not knowing about bylaws was not an excuse for non-compliance, but there was still work to be done to inform people about what was legal, which is why council has endorsed a graduated approach for the past six years.
She says that when council previously lobbied central government for change the response had been “less than ideal”.
Minister for local government, Nanaia Mahuta, was approached for comment but did not respond by the time the paper went to print.
