Hume City Council has adopted a new set of local laws, due to come into effect on Monday 4 September.
Designed following in-depth engagement and collaboration with Councillors, Council officers, safety partners and community members, the new local laws seek to support and improve safety and amenity across the community.
All local councils have a set of laws unique to their area that get updated every 10 years – or before if required. With our General Local Law document set to expire this year we asked you to help us freshen up the rules that keep our community clean and safe.
A number of new local laws created with the feedback you gave us will come into effect on XX.
We all want to take pride in where we live, so our new local laws are designed to create a cleaner Hume City for everyone. Key changes include:
New requirements and penalties for retailers to keep shopping trolleys off our streets.
All clothing recycling bins to have a permit from Council to operate, and a requirement for owners of these bins to keep them in a clean a tidy manner.
New penalties for those who damage public assets (including damage and defacement).
Increased penalties for individuals who consistently and willfully neglect their properties.
Another top priority for our community is safety, so we’re putting into law behaviours that will keep us and our loved ones out of danger. These include:
Stopping hooning events before they even begin by penalising spectators.
Adding to the Victorian Tobacco Act to expand smoke-free zones.
Providing exemptions on compassionate grounds for camping in public areas.
These are just some of the new local laws you’ve asked for to make our city the best it can be, and we acknowledge that these changes will come with a period of adjustment and education.
To facilitate this, we will be delivering a series of communication during the roll-out to ensure that all residents are well-informed about the new regulations and their implications.
Council relies on community members to report their concerns to make reports of concerns or non-compliance in the community. If you see someone breaking a local law report it to Council, or if it’s an emergency call 000.
Quotes attributable to Mayor Cr Joseph Haweil:
“The new local laws give Council a critical set of rules to address the highest priority concerns for locals and to create a better community for everyone”
“We take no joy in issuing fines for the sake of it, so the message is simple – do the right thing.”
“I urge all of our community to dob in and report bad behaviour in our community as they see it.”
