Gerald Lynch
Alcohol, smoking and vaping could be banned in public places on Whittlesea council land and public places following changes to Whittlesea council’s local laws.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, the council passed a new set of laws to take effect from next year with the current set of laws set to expire.
There were a number of changes from the previous laws.
There are new laws introduced that set out the manner in which a person can behave in public places and on council land, including the prohibition of alcohol and smoking or vaping in areas up to the council’s discretion.
A number of provisions were made with intent to improve fire prevention including open-air burning and recreational firepits.
There have been stronger laws included around having control of dogs in public areas and what types of animals can be domesticated.
Clearer laws regarding property management including hard waste and rubbish dumping, as well as nature strip rules have been included.
Emergency management and regulatory programs director Andrew Mason spoke at the council meeting to the extensive work conducted in the building of the laws, including two phases of community consultation to make the laws easy to understand.
“This year we facilitated two rounds of community consultation that saw 2164 participants provide feedback,” he said.
“The new local law has been simplified to make it easier for residents to read and understand, it’s written in community friendly language.”
Council administrator Christian Zahra said the amount of participants involved was a staggeringly high number for any community engagement process.
“There were 644 online surveys (completed), 1509 in-person conversations at 45 community pop up events. That really is the gold standard in terms of community engagement, a very comprehensive process that has not been rushed,” he said.
The new law will come into effect from July 1, 2024.
