FAQ

The community will be notified of any local law proposals in a local newspaper and in the state wide West Australian newspaper.  Notices will also be displayed at the City’s Administration Offices and libraries, where copies of the proposals can also be viewed.  Your Voice Nedlands will contain copies of all notices and proposals, information about the status and progress of the City’s changing local laws, and provide you with the opportunity to provide feedback, make submissions and ask questions relating to all local law proposals.

All public notices and proposals will also be available for viewing in the 'Document Library' here on 'Your Voice Nedlands' too.

Yes.  All local law proposals will be published for public viewing and public submissions will be invited on the proposals for a minimum of 42 days.

Any submissions received in relation to a local law proposal will be considered.  This might result in changes to the proposal.  If the change is minor, the proposal can be updated and proceed to be presented to Council for adoption.  If there are any major changes the City is required to re-commence the process of making the local law and a new draft will be produced for Council consideration and public submission.

Submissions should be addressed to the Chief Executive Officer at the City of Nedlands by the date advised on the public notice for the local law proposal. 

You can make a submission electronically or by post, here are the a few different ways you can do this:

1) Post a submission in writing to City of Nedlands, PO Box 9 Nedlands 6909;

2) Deliver a submission in writing to our Administration Office, 71 Stirling Highway, Nedlands 6009;

3) Provide a submission here in 'Your Voice' using the 'Submissions and Feedback' tool; or

4) Send your submission in an email to council@nedlands.wa.gov.au

Section 3.12 of the Local Government Act 1995 sets out the requirements for the development of local laws.  The operational guidelines for local laws published by the Department for Local Government and Communities can be found here.

Yes.

You can find all of the City of Nedlands local laws that are in force on the website at www.nedlands.wa.gov.au

There is also a full register of local laws for the whole of WA available to view here.  The local laws register records details of when each local law was made, amended or repealed.

A City of Nedlands Waste Local Law 2016 would allow the City to enforce compliance for waste management in a more effective and streamlined manner. This has the potential to reduce waste management costs for the City, enable City Officers to respond more efficiently to waste complaints raised by members of the public, reduce health and environment hazards and provide a healthier and more sustainable environment for rate payers.

More information can be found in the Council report considered at the Ordinary Meeting of Council on 25 October 2016.  Click here to view the report.

Yes.  The City’s Health Local Laws 1997 are currently inclusive of provisions relating to waste and enables the City to prosecute for alleged offences. However, this isn't ideal, as prosecution is not an effective method for enforcing compliance for minor offences.  The proposed Waste Local Law 2016 will allow the City to issue modified infringement notices for minor offences in place of costly prosecutions where enforcement is required.

The biggest change is that offenders will have the opportunity to pay a prescribed modified penalty, rather than facing a potential prosecution where a higher maximum penalty and court costs may apply.

Having a Standing Orders Local Law allows for the orderly conduct of meetings of the Council and Committees.

It ensures that all Council and Committee meetings are governed effectively unless otherwise provided for in the Local Government Act 1995 or Regulations.

The City adopted the City of Nedlands Standing Orders Local Law in April 2009.  It has since been amended in 2011 and 2014.

The Local Government Act 1995 requires periodic reviews of all local laws.  A number of minor amendments to the Standing Orders Local Law were identified at a workshop with Councillors in 2015, thus the City of Nedlands Standing Orders Amendments Local Law 2015 was developed.  A report was presented to the Council meeting of 15 December 2015 fully detailing the minor amendments proposed to be made, this can be viewed here.

The Local Government Act 1995 sets out processes that a Local Government must follow to repeal or revoke a Local Law.  In 2015 the City of Nedlands Council resolved to repeal the Signs Local Law 2007 and Fencing Local Law 2007 to be replaced with Local Planning Policies.  In order for this to happen, a new local law for the purpose of 'repealing' must be created.

The City's Local Planning Policy Manual can be found here.

All of the reports and minutes relating to these local laws and replacement planning policies have been uploaded to the document library.

Over recent years the City has been subjected to continuously increasing demands for parking availability, and to identify and implement parking strategies that protect amenities for residents.  It is a priority for the City to be able to implement effective, safe and manageable solutions for parking that are supported by a local law that is clear and directive.

Key reasons for reviewing the City’s current Parking and Parking Facilities Local Law 2013 include:

• There are a number of terminologies used to described the trafficable land between private boundaries, including street, carriageway, road, thoroughfare, highway, verge, right of way, and lane. 

  Some of these are defined within the Local Law, some are defined in other Local Laws in operation by the City, and some are referred to the Road Traffic Code for a definition.  Terminologies vary within various state Acts, policies, standards and guidelines.

  This can be confusing for road users to identify what land can be used for parking that is compliance with the local law.  For example, it is prohibited to park within a specified distance from an intersection on a thoroughfare.  The definition of the thoroughfare includes all land between boundaries, thus this prohibition also applies to land that is nature strip (verge) as well as the actual road carriageway.  But as the definition for ‘thoroughfare’ is not clearly provided in the local law, it is commonly misunderstood that this clause in the local law also applied to the verge.  It is impractical for readers of the local law to need to look up and cross reference the document with other local laws or state legislation to identify clear definitions.

  The new Parking and Parking Facilities Local Law 2016 addresses this issue and provides clear definitions for terminologies used within the document and associated local law documents.  These definitions have been derived from the Road Traffic Code and the City of Nedlands Thoroughfares Local Law to ensure that the Local Law has consistency with existing City by-laws and state legislation that has been passed by parliament.

• To date the City has had issues with road users parking in bicycle lanes, these issues include incidents and cyclist injuries.  Parking within a thoroughfare so that an obstruction is created to a bicycle lane presents a safety risk to cyclists.

  The Road Traffic Code 2000 clearly prohibits the stopping of a vehicle in a bicycle lane, with some exceptions, under Regulation 157(d).

Division 6 — Other places where stopping is restricted

157. Stopping in bus lane, transit lane, truck lane or bicycle lane

A driver shall not stop in —

(a) a bus lane; or

(b) a transit lane; or

(c) a truck lane; or

(d) a bicycle lane,

unless the driver is driving a public bus or taxi, and is dropping off, or picking up, passengers.

Section 3.21 of the Local Government Act 1995 empowers local governments to ensure that thoroughfares are not obstructed as part of performing their executive functions. 

3.21. Duties when performing functions

(1) In performing its executive functions, a local government, so far as is reasonable and practicable, is to —

(a) ensure that —

(i) the lawful use of any land, thoroughfare or premises is not obstructed, and any reasonable request that a person makes to avoid such obstruction is met; and…

A clause has been added to the City’s proposed new Parking Local Law to prohibit the obstruction of bicycle lane by the parking of a vehicle that is consistent within the prohibitions of the Road Traffic Code 2000. 

• Minor modifications have been made to clause 5.14, stopping on a verge/nature strip, as a result of legal advice.  These modifications do not change the provisions of this clause within the local law, but clarify that the clause applies to any portion of a vehicle parked on a verge.

• Clauses relating to permit exemptions have been modified to introduce additional variations of parking restrictions the City may implement.  This will provide flexibilities in the City’s strategies for the effective provision and management of parking, and increase the amenity of street parking for eligible City rate-payers through the provision of permits. 

  This will enable new additional parking options to be considered during community consultations that are carried out when problematic parking issues are identified or raised by members in the community.

  The clause changes will allow for ‘permit holders excepted’ to be specified against a number of existing types of parking restriction signage.  Currently permit holders are exempt from parking restrictions that ‘limit’ the length of time parking is allowed, for example unlimited length of parking in areas where ‘3 hours parking’ is permitted, and this will continue with no changes.  However, in addition to this exemption, the changes to the clause in the local law would allow for ‘permit holders accepted’ be added to ‘no parking’ and ‘no parking between specified times of days or on specific days signage’, for eligible permit holders to be exempt from compliance with those additional types of sign too.