Not sure if this is the correct forum to be posting this, but does anyone know the by-law around motorised vehicles (cars, motorbikes), being used on a public reserve. The council don't make it easy to find. I do have a query in with them, but won't expect a response for a few days.
tamarillo,
Nov 2, 1:00pm
As a by law it’s local council so no national answer.
trade4us2,
Nov 2, 1:01pm
If they are damaging the grass deliberately, I take a photo and give it to the police. The drivers are made to pay for the damage - up to $1600 in one case.
kazbanz,
Nov 2, 1:13pm
It will be specific to the park and to the council. What is your specific concern? I see you are located in Waitakere so if you could name the park I can likely help. I must say that the Waitakere council took a "no harm no foul" approach when my kids were riding their little quad bikes on one local park. But we were pretty respectful of the park. Some parks specifically state No Motor vehicles on the grassed areas.
meg142,
Nov 2, 2:10pm
Thanks everyone. just found this. So the answer is no they cannot.
Auckland Council's Public Safety and Nuisance Bylaw 2013 specifically prohibits the use of motorised bikes in parks. The bylaw says "a person must not drive, ride, propel or wheel any vehicle on a park except on places specified by the council for the driving or riding of vehicles and subject to any controls that the council specifies".
kazbanz,
Nov 2, 2:16pm
A heads up for you. The Police are not and never will be employed by the council. The general public have zero power to enforce a local bi law. So your next issue is finding the actual enforcement agency for the bi law THEN getting them to actually do something about it at the times the bikes are being ridden.
meg142,
Nov 2, 2:55pm
Thank you, I just wanted to understand the By-Law. Then I will contact the council when and if required. It's becoming quite an issue in a local reserve. I realise it will be an upward battle.
kazbanz,
Nov 2, 3:06pm
Honestly I'd suggest sooner rather than later. ie when you have sometime to dig into it. Enforcement on a weekend can be a nightmare ie finding someone to actually respond. You may also find that AT are responsible for "that" pathway (for example ).
meg142,
Nov 2, 4:47pm
Thank you. I will be following up with the council.
amasser,
Nov 3, 1:23pm
Police could be involved if the vehicles are not legal but used public roads to get to the reserve. Same applies to footpaths.
mrcat1,
Nov 3, 6:22pm
Its a public place so if the vehicle is being ridden/ driven in a manner that causes problems or the vehicle isn't road worthy, then yes they will take a interest.
kazbanz,
Nov 4, 11:02am
I think your mental image of whats going on and mine are a bit different. Im picturing younger kids on bikes and quads on a paddock type park. -Im guessing you are thinking younger adults with cars and full size trail bikes on a multi use park .
sanders4,
Nov 4, 8:50pm
We had a pile of islanders camping on our beach reserve about 4 months ago, no signs saying camping is illegal so it took about a week to get rid of them. As usual if you do anything wrong whacked straight away, others have special rights apparently.
mrcat1,
Nov 4, 11:16pm
I have lots of mental images, which one in particular? The OP doesn't state whether its little Johnny with his father on a kids quad blatting around, or little Johnny's father on a YZ 490 shredding grass like no tomorrow. Both scenarios unfortunately nowadays will probably draw the attention of the local constabulary, and I think the attitude of little Johnny and his father and the attitude of the constable will determine the outcome there, as for his father shredding the place, that's going south real quick.
gunna-1,
Nov 5, 5:10am
Bylaws are one massive headach, i cant even shread grass down at the creek bank where peoples dogs do there bussiness but back in the day me and some mates were at a public reserve and i was on a kawasaki z440 hooning around barely able to touch the ground, it was a real blast and no one complained or baited an eye, then some jackass ripped up the whole place in a vk commodore it got in the paper and every tom dick and harry was up in arms about it, can you immagen some kid on a massive streetbike hooning around a public reserve now? i still think the grass shreadding yz 490 should be fair game down a ratty old creak bank as long as its within noise hours and they dont go near pedestrians, down by us there is a massive grass area below the walkway out of harms way and i have only ever seen one guy brave enough to attempt it.
kazbanz,
Nov 5, 10:34am
been there seen that done that. I used to run rides for little kids-4-10 on a local piece of wasteland. You would have 40 kids at a time and their parents. Zero harm to local factories. Nobodies weekend disturbed being an industrial area. Everybody happy. Then the local hoons started turning up and mud was going on commercial driveways or dust blowing everywhere.--go figure total ban in place.
tygertung,
Nov 5, 11:33am
We are all "Islanders" here. Actually we are all "Pacific Islanders" as New Zealand is an island in the Pacific.
gunna-1,
Nov 6, 4:21am
It only seems to take the loudest ones to ruin it for everyone, i,e people whining about dust and mud, in an industrial area HA HA! . typcial behaviour of them! and people who get there kicks out of haveing power, the guy i knew who was a friend of a friend who tore up a park if it hadent of got in the paper buy one angrey local and if the police hadent gotten heavy handed afterwards there wouldent be an issue, it would have blown over, most of us thought he was a prat, we got away with rideing our bikes through a 30k zone that were total dungers some with no frount breaks because it had a motorcross track at the end, it was down some legal road and then miles down dirt gravel roads, there were no deaths or injuries, then the cops had a feild day and the old track is now grown over in grass and shrubbs, people probably thought the later millenials were just lazy, but they didnt see the jackboot action continue long after the news paper artical was forgotten about.
kazbanz,
Nov 6, 10:04am
Don't get your point sorry. Its a matter of mutual respect. The people working in/running the factories could see what a great thing we were doing so turned a "blind eye" We in turn were respectful of their driveways/paved areas. The idiots though left mud everywhere.Bed factory owners,campervan builders,bathroom supply importers don't take kindly to mud being traipsed into their factories by the wheels of their delivery trucks and forkhoists.
gunna-1,
Nov 6, 3:46pm
Jobs for the scrub or the newby, cleaning the drive, my empathy extends to serrious vandalisum and stops at things like road dust / mud, i get your point, but the other point is its like feeding wild bears, they only get hungrey for more, would you hack five feet into a tree on someone elces property because it was dropping leaves, or would you trim the branches over hanging your fence so you dont have to sweep up as many? one neighbor brutaly attacked a medium sized tree with a pole saw because a branch was hanging half a foot over his fence, and he chopped another five feet of crushing our garden and leaving a hell of a mess because he felt inconvenienced, by something so minor, sometime a nuciance can be a character building excursive in hard work, but not vandalisum, on the flip side you have self rightious people becomeing vandals, hence my comment about feeding bears, they only get more agressive to the point they attack for no reason.
gunna-1,
Nov 6, 4:32pm
I think most of the industrial area people were mostly ok, but it only takes one or two to get this sort of thing shut down, and most of those people are not reasonable in the slightest, where most of the others might not be so bothered, or getting people to be abit more careful would be enough, the people who have things shut down are normally ruthless, and not many, i,ve known them.
meg142,
Oct 24, 8:47pm
For clarification, the vehicles being driven are cars and four wheel drive vehicles driven by adults at speed. The motorbikes being ridden at speed are full size off road motorbikes being ridden by adults and teenagers. They are ripping up the grass and creating a lot of noise and dust. Word must be getting out because it's happening more often. Usually they turn up and hoon for 10 minutes and then disappear (I guess so they aren't there when the police do arrive if called). The reserve is a public reserve in a residential street surrounded by residential houses. I always understood that it was a prohibited activity (which to me is quite logical given the location of the reserve), but was challenged by someone asking why. He'd been riding his motorbike for more than an hour in the reserve and I lost patience with the noise and dust and went out to speak to him. Hence I wanted to understand the by-law covering it. I have had a definite answer from the council, and no it is not allowed. I'm not a kill joy, I understand that people enjoy this type of activity. There are designated areas they can use.
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