Hearing Panel deliberate on proposed Brothels Bylaw

The Brothels Bylaw Hearing Panel met Friday to continue deliberations on the proposed Christchurch City Council Brothels (Location and Commercial Sexual Services Signage) Bylaw 2012, following public consultation in June and July 2012 which attracted 193 submissions.

The Hearing Panel deliberated further on the location of brothels, other than small owner-operator brothels, to specific commercial areas in Christchurch and will not permit them to be located on a property that shares a boundary with, or is adjacent to, a school or preschool.

Brothels Bylaw Hearing Panel Chairperson Helen Broughton says while the Council cannot prohibit brothels, or be too restrictive about where they can locate, this proposed bylaw places controls on where operator-run brothels can set up business.

“The panel’s aim is to identify areas of the city where this activity is allowed, away from schools and preschools; and residential areas.

“The Hearing Panel has spent a lot of time looking at maps of possible locations for operator-run brothels. We have adjusted these maps to create buffer zones between residential areas and brothels and we considered today to suggest the removal of Lyttelton, Aranui and Wigram.

“Aranui and Wigram were removed because the creation of buffer zones around residential areas and schools meant the remaining areas were too small or isolated. In Lyttelton’s case, the Hearing Panel considered the overwhelming opposition from the local community through the submission process, and also took into account the recently adopted Lyttelton Master Plan. We felt the work the Council and the community had done on the Master Plan to support Lyttelton’s rebuild and recovery would not be consistent with allowing commercial brothels to set up business in the township.

“The Hearing Panel will meet again in the coming week to continue discussions on the Central City location and formally ratify the panel’s recommendations. I am are confident we will have a workable recommendation to take to full Council for their approval when they meet in late October,” she says.
In March 2012, the Council asked staff to develop a new brothels bylaw to address any potential issues as many of the known operator-run brothels were located in the Central City and their business premises were inaccessible or badly damaged following the 2011 earthquakes. This was in recognition that businesses may wish to temporarily or permanently relocate and that there are no bylaw controls around where a brothel could set up in the city.