By-law Ruling Defended

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 26

By-law Ruling Defended

(N Z. Press Association)

GISBORNE, Sept. 2. The Mayor of Gisborne (Mr H. H. Barker) has come to the defence of Mr W. M. Willis, S.M., who recently ruled that one of the model code of building by-laws was invalid.

Mr Barker said that although the decision by the Magistrate was disconcerting to the Gisborne City Council and to other local bodies, it was recognised that the Magistrate was required to interpret the law as he saw it. If, in his opinion, the law was unreasonable, the Magistrate had no alternative but to declare it ultra vires, said Mr Barker.

The Magistrate found in this way against a by-law framed by the Standards Association, and adopted throughout New Zealand. The decision meant that local bodies were not able to require building permits to be taken out. The director of the Standards Association (Mr G. H Edwards) has expressed concern at statements by the Magistrate at Gisborne that the building by-law had the

effect of prohibiting everything, that the local body was left to decide when to prosecute, and that the by-law stepped outside reasonableness.

Mr Edwards said that declaring the model building by-law unreasonable in a court ruling might accentuate the present tendency to central Government control, and further weaken the powers of local government. Mr Barker said today that the Standards Association should either sponsor an

appeal against the decision or take steps to have the by-law amended. Because the association was assumed to be an authoritative and competent body, most local authorities adopted its model by-laws, he said—but it was disturbing to find some of its by-laws would not stand up to legal objection. The position now was that some of these by-laws, although clearly in the public interest, could not be enforced because they had been loosely drawn up by the association.