Bylaw revocation resisted

The city council decision to revoke its health bylaw is resisted by Medical Officer of Health Dr Phil Shoemack, saying the council has an obligation to promote and protect public health.


Medical Officer of Health Dr Phil Shoemack

Phil says that under the law the council has an obligation to improve, promote, and protect public health within its district, and make regular inspections to ensure no conditions likely to be injurious to public health exist in the district.

'It worries me slightly that having gone through the process of adopting the public health bylaw, that council is now considering doing away with it,” says Phil, speaking at the council meeting during the public forum.

The Public Health Bylaw was put in place in September 2006 to regulate and monitor hygiene conditions at food stalls and food premises, and water quality in commercial spa and swimming pools including geothermal pools.

Food stalls and food premises are covered by the Food Act (2014), which council staff say replaces the provisions set out in the Public Health Bylaw, making it redundant. Also, the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 strengthens the responsibility of commercial pool owners to comply with the current New Zealand Standard Pool Water Quality.

'I suggest that's a jump too far,” says Phil. 'My understanding of the intention of the Health and Safety at Work Act is it's principally about protecting people at work. It provides some protection for members of the public in work places but that's not its primary purpose.”

He's also worried council staff are suggesting there is no ongoing need for the bylaw because of a lack of public complaints.

'I don't think we can rely just upon levels of complaints to pick up any problems. For instance, I would be really worried if we were to govern food premises just on complaints. We don't do that, nor is there any suggestion that we did.

'Nor would it be a healthy situation to say, ‘you build homes but we won't bother inspecting them, we will just see if there's any complaints'.”

It is waiting until things go wrong before we react, says Phil. His interpretation of the Local Government Act is for local authorities to be pro-active in measures to protect the public and to improve the health of the public.

It opens the debate about what is the role of local government when it comes to public health.

His recommendation is council not revoke its bylaw but amend it to include coverage of swimming pools, skin piecing and solaria - sunbeds.

The council decided against extending the bylaw, based on the very small number of complaints received on these topics, and considering Council staff can continue to investigate nuisances under the Health Act.

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1 comment

Govt or Council

Posted on 25-07-2016 13:07 | By Annalist

Looks like this should be the responsibility of government, not council. Anyway, some of these silly health regulations are used to make it difficult for groups to fundraise with things like old fashioned sausage sizzles.


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