THE Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) provided a submission to the NSW Office of Local Government regarding the removal of legally parked boat trailers on streets.
In July 2016, the Impounding Act 1993 was amended by the Impounding Amendment (Unattended Boat Trailers) Act 2015 to allow councils and impounding authorities to “opt in” to take impounding action against boat trailers parked for more than 28 days. The intention was to enable councils to manage boat trailer parking on residential streets and encourage the use of off-street storage.
The RFA believes that the Impounding Amendment (Unattended Boat Trailers) Act 2015 should be removed, or at the very least reviewed to a more meaningful and less discriminatory level that would allow boat owners to park their legally registered boat trailers and boats in their streets and in front of their houses without fear of impoundment.
A lack of information from government as part of a review process is clearly evident as no information, evidence or data relating to the amendments to the Act in 2015 is available.
The lack of detail on the effectiveness of the existing legislation, which should have been available as part of the consultative process, is alarming. The RFA is not sure which agency should be providing this data, the public’s ability to provide sound responses to the Impounding Act Review is severely limited by these omissions.
Access to the data, if it even exists, is a real issue. Sounds familiar?
Stay tuned for more updates.
