We’ve heard from our community about the impacts of antisocial behaviour on our residents, its impacts upon amenity, safety, perceptions of safety and the appeal of high streets and other areas as vibrant, attractive and safe places to visit. Clause 17 has been amended to address nuisance behaviour in our city. It would give officers the ability to address behaviour that unreasonably interferes with another person on or close to Council land by asking them to stop or issuing an infringement.

Items such as furniture and other ‘hard waste’ that have been put out for collection often are moved to our footpaths, parks and reserves which causes obstruction and visual clutter. To ensure the cleanliness and safe passage of our public places, this new Clause 43 will allow items that shouldn’t be located on the street or parks to be removed and/or impounded.

Proposed Clause 50 Political Signs. This new clause is proposed in order to improve transparency and remove any confusion with regard to the Planning Scheme and other legislation. The clause makes it an offence to affix, erect, install or otherwise display a political sign on Council Land other than where it is authorised under any other legislation. State and Federal legislation provide for the placing, erection and display of candidate signs within 100m of polling places.

Council has considered, but not included a hoon clause in the Proposed Community Amenity Local Law 2023, but we’re asking the community to provide their thoughts in the survey or via a written submission.

Council may revisit this at a more appropriate time, pending community feedback.

This alteration to proposed Clause 9 has been made to increase control over activities that have the potential to damage Council assets, and/or impact the quality of water entering stormwater systems, water courses and Port Phillip Bay. The current requirement to obtain a permit did not apply where Council has approved a plan of subdivision. This exemption has been removed to ensure that all connections to a Council drain are carried out in accordance with Council’s requirements.

Proposed Clause 15 Asset Protection Permit has been amended to make it clear that the owner of the land can be held responsible for damages caused by the builder, if the builder fails to repair the damage. The wording of the clause has been simplified, and definition of builder expended to ensure that all parties involved in building works can be held responsible for damage to Council assets. This change is consistent with Building and Planning legislation.

Proposed Clause 23 Shopping Trolleys has been amended to require all venues with over 30 trolleys to have a perimeter lock system installed to reduce the number of trolleys being taken off site. This amendment is aimed at preventing shopping trolleys from being moved well beyond the stores, misused or being abandoned on public land where they can cause damage and block access.

Proposed Clause 33 Itinerant Trading has been amended to include all Council Land. This will allow Council to require and assess permits for any businesses seeking to use Council Land for commercial purposes, including e-bikes and e-scooters.

Proposed Clause 35 Special Events has been amended to include the requirement for a permit for the placement of any furniture, heater, fire pit of other item on a road or Council Land. This enables event organisers to broaden their offer at some special events. whilst managing risks and being subjected to assessment through the permitting process.

Proposed Clause 51 has been expanded - introducing Part (1) sub clause (2) that requires owners or owners corporations to not allow nature strips and land adjacent to property to be unsightly or occupied with furniture or other objects. The proposed amendment aims to encourage a joint onus approach to addressing the issue of dumped hard waste in our streets. Land owners and owners corporations will be required to book hard waste collections services through Council’s service provider.

Council currently restricts works on building sites to 9am to 3pm on Saturdays. This amendment will increase the allowable hours to 9am to 5pm bringing it into compliance with surrounding Councils and giving greater consistency to the construction industry.

Proposed Clause 52 Managing Amenity on Building Sites has also been amended to include the requirement for Tree Protection Barriers for Council trees (including root zone) on the nature strip or other Council Land adjoining a building site. This change is in recognition of the trees’ environmental and aesthetic values, and the significant investment of public funds in tree maintenance, monitoring and replacement.