Christchurch City Council proposes revoking brothel bylaw

The Christchurch City Council is considering removing a bylaw that governs location and conditions for signage related to brothels and commercial sexual services.  Submissions have been invited and are due by Friday 4 September.  Family First have some information on this here (pdf format).

Here’s a copy of the submission my wife and I sent in:

We would like to register our opposition to the revocation of the Brothels Bylaw.  We realise that the conclusion of the review of the bylaw was that there was “no significant evidence of nuisance problems caused by the location of brothels, and if any issues arose, they could be controlled under the current provisions of the City or District Plan as appropriate”.  However, we have three points to make about this:

The first is that the conclusion sounds somewhat reactive: if issues arose, there would be other mechanisms to deal with them.  We would like to see more weight given to the preventative aspects of the bylaw.  The existence of the bylaw may well contribute to the lack of issues to date, and if it remains in place it may continue to prevent issues in the future, rather than allowing issues to arise which would then subsequently have to be dealt with through other means.

Second, and to us, more importantly,  the bylaw constitutes an important statement about what the city of Christchurch stands for – it says something about the concern we have for the wellbeing of the women who get damaged by prostitution (see http://www.prostitutionresearch.com, for example, for more on this).  Anything the Council can do to limit this damage ought to be maintained and, indeed, strengthened, rather than watered down.

Third, we, like the vast majority of Christchurch residents, DO NOT WANT a brothel or brothel advertising to intrude on our lives, or especially on the lives of our children.  Reducing the restrictions on where such signage or establishments can be located is a step in the wrong direction.  Both advertising and location of brothels are issues where we would much rather see restrictions increased rather than reduced.  Locations of particular concern would be residential areas, near schools, en route to schools, and shopping centers.  We really don’t want to see offensive signage, and don’t think recourse to the Advertising Standards Authority is the most effective way to deal with it, as appeals to the Authority will always be after the fact, when the damage has been done.

If you’re interested, I’d encourage you to read the City Council’s summary paper (pdf format again) and take a few minutes to make a submission of your own.