The Nanny Ranges

Under the General Provision Local Laws, they would need a permit also to fly a model aeroplane, conduct or celebrate a wedding or have an alcoholic drink on council land.
Prohibited would be swimming, paddling or wading in a ‘body of water’ not prescribed for that purpose!
Under the proposed law on camping – aimed at giving council powers to eject itinerant workers who set up camp, clothes lines and all, at places such as Coronation Park in Healesville and Lillydale Lake, sleeping, resting or sojourning in a car in a public place, such as the side of the road, would also be outlawed.
Yarra Ranges Council has this week embarked on the first stage of consultation in relation to the consolidation of established local laws, including scare gun control, streets and road, open air burning, animal control and consumption of liquor in public places with additional existing and new laws which will cover, under numerous by-laws, 25 behaviours and activities residents, or visitors, may, or may not engage in.
Council’s manager Buiilding, Health and Local Laws, David Clarkson, was keen to point out that the document is a draft… and council is very keen for people to have their say on what is proposed under the numerous by-laws.
Mr Clarkson explained that the aim is to consolidate all the local-laws to reduce the burden of separate review processes each time a law reaches its ‘use-by date’ and to increase the transparency of local laws.
Many of the new laws require a permit, but how much those permits will be is yet to be decided.
“There will probably be some new things that require permits, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, in the sense that it gives us control to allow people to do things without it being prohibited, but it also covers all behaviours that may be happening at the moment that we don’t have controls for,” Mr Clarkson said.
Mr Clarkson rejected the suggestion the Council is ‘nannying’ and that laws may have unintended consequences for residents.
“I don’t know that we are looking for a lot of prohibition in this,” he said. “We’re looking for ability to put in codes of practice, guidelines, as to how these things can be managed.”
He said council was responding to community driven concerns, and said it may be that there would be certain local laws for particular communities.
The Council currently has a team of 12 working in compliance across the shire, including animal management and parking.
“Most of our work in local laws is reactive… we respond to complaints,” Mr Clarkson said.
In response to whether the council has sufficient by-laws officers to police it’s current, or proposed by-laws.
“Do I think we could have everyone of these controlled every day… no!” he said.
The draft General Provisions Local Law 2010 will be open for submissions until the end of the year.