As of Monday 14 November 2011, Western Downs Regional Council's new suite of Local and Subordinate Local Laws have officially come into effect - all previous local/subordinate local laws of the former Councils have now been repealed.
Council has successfully undertaken an 18 month long mandatory review of the region's existing 141 local and subordinate local laws. The major milestone of formally adopting each of the proposed new 7x local and 22 x subordinate local laws (plus a Repealing Local Law) was achieved at Council's Ordinary Meeting held in Jandowae on Wednesday 26th October, 2011.
The objective of this significant review project has been to develop a suite of consistent and relevant new local laws and subordinate laws to streamline local law administration across the Western Downs region.
Among the seven new proposed local laws, Council has chosen to use several of the model local laws and subordinate local laws gazetted by the State on 25 June 2010. Council has also adapted some of the models to cater for local needs and has also developed two new local laws to assist with regulating Saleyards and Aerodromes. The new laws are supported by 22 individual subordinate local laws.
The new suite of laws cover a wide range of administrative and regulatory roles and functions including areas such as signage, food hygiene, footpath dining, building, parking, keeping pets, gates and grids, temporary entertainment events, and permits and licences.
Residents are advised that some existing permit fees and fines will increase, particularly in relation to parking, with most fines increasing from approximately $10 to $15. Fines for illegally parking in a Disabled Parking space will increase significantly to $37.50. Although Dalby residents are most likely to be impacted by these changes, the new fines are relevant across the region and able to be enforced where issues are registered with Council. A complete list of each offence and the associated fine is included in the Parking subordinate local law available on Council's website.
The newly adopted local laws were officially published in the Queensland Government Gazette on Monday 14th November, and have been implemented across the region from this date.
Council has developed a set of helpful fact sheets to assist residents with identifying which laws may be relevant to them. These can be accessed online along with copies of the new local laws via the Local Laws section of Council's website or alternatively copies can be requested from each of Council’s Customer Service Centres or by emailing a request to info@wdrc.qld.gov.au
