Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw

Overview

Hamilton City Council (Council) is seeking feedback on our proposal to revoke the Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw 2012.

Summary

The Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw was created to minimise offensive behaviour and potential risk to visitors to our Aquatics, Libraries and Museum facilities.

We've reviewed the Bylaw and found that our current processes work well to manage offensive and nuisance behaviour at our facilities. We've also identified that these processes can be achieved through existing policies, procedures and legislation without the need for a bylaw.

In essence, we don't need to keep the Bylaw to continue to follow our processes. Revoking the Bylaw would not change how we manage our facilities and how we manage offensive and nuisance behaviour.

Council will continue to prioritise de-escalating nuisance behaviour at Hamilton's Pools, Libraries and Museum. On the rare occasion where nuisance behaviour escalates to the point where a person needs to be trespassed, we'll continue to trespass under the Trespass Act 1980.

Why are we doing this?

The Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw was last reviewed in 2012. Council is required to review existing bylaws every 10 years.

Public consultation is an important aspect of review because it provides an opportunity to check in with our wider community and consider feedback on our proposal. 

Why your views matter

Proposal

Council is proposing to revoke the Bylaw. Council will continue to use our current management processes to minimise offensive behaviour at Council cultural and recreational facilities and will respond to offensive behaviour with existing processes, procedures, and legislation.

Why are we proposing to revoke the Bylaw?

A local authority must, before commencing the process for making or reviewing a bylaw, determine whether a bylaw is the most appropriate way of addressing the perceived problem. Council determined that the Bylaw is no longer the most appropriate mechanism because we can manage nuisance and offensive behaviour in other ways.

Here are the key reasons for not keeping this Bylaw:

• Council can make rules and set expectations for customers without needing a bylaw.
• Our processes (including rules of entry to our facilities) sufficiently respond to customer behaviour issues.
• We do not need to keep this Bylaw to continue our existing management processes that keep our community safe at these facilities. 
• Staff processes to de-escalate problem behaviour have been used successfully.
• Not having a bylaw means we can be more flexible in responding to community needs and expectations.
• Council can apply the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Act 2013 to the premises covered by this Bylaw.
• Should behaviour reach unmanageable levels, Council could use the Trespass Act 1980.
• Council already has processes and policies in place other than this Bylaw to trespass a customer under the Trespass Act 1980.

Tell us your thoughts on the proposal

Council wants to hear your thoughts on the proposal to revoke the Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw. Please note that if we revoke the Bylaw, we expect no changes to the way our facilities operate, or how we handle nuisance behaviour.

Scroll down to end of this page to view the current Bylaw that is proposed for revocation.

Click here to veiw the current Bylaw that is proposed for revocation.

Next steps

Staff will collect and analyse all feedback at the close of the submission period.

The analysis of this feedback will be presented to the Community and Natural Environment Committee.

Council will then consider all the views and make a decision on the Bylaw.