Nelson will benefit from three changes this month that reduce the unnecessary red tape that is holding back our city, driving up rates and costing businesses.
I have been working for a year in support of CLM getting an alcohol on-licence for the Trafalgar Centre. There are 27 similar venues around NZ and all have on-licences. Nelson regularly misses out on national touring shows, such as The Exponents and Marlon Williams, because of the delays, costs and uncertainty of getting special licences.
I commend the Nelson District Licensing Committee for last week granting the on-licence. It will help attract more events and visitors to our city and means lower compliance costs for these shows. It saves ratepayers as the more the Trafalgar Centre is used, the more income Council receives to offset costs.
The second win over red tape is the revoking of the regulations tomorrow that require hairdressers and barbers to be registered with councils. Nelson’s 42 salons have to pay a $264 annual registration fee to Council. The regulations also cost ratepayers $10,000 a year to administer and enforce. These nanny state rules set the space between chairs, standard of lighting and ban serving a coffee or having a dog at a salon. They are not needed. Customers can take their business elsewhere if a salon is not up to standard.
The third change announced at the weekend is the Government dropping the 2019 Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management, which has driven up the costs of road works and spurred a plague of road cones. The rigid code came from the previous Government’s “Road to Zero” policy and the rules are over the top. They have added millions to civil works costs in NZ, excessively disrupt traffic and hurt businesses adjacent to road works.
Councils have been told by Government to drop the code and follow a more practical temporary traffic management guide. It takes a risk-based approach and better balances safety with cost. In anticipation of this change, Council has already been pulling back.
Cutting unnecessary red tape in areas like these is required to help rebuild the economy and to get rising costs such as rates under control.
