Racers to face $1000 fines

Boy racers repeatedly caught "cruising" Christchurch's main streets could be fined up to $1000 under a New Zealand-first bylaw that could be enforced within months.

But Christchurch City Council staff say the council's bylaw could be open to legal challenge and "problematic" to manage.

The council will be the first in New Zealand to exercise new powers under a law change last year that enables local bodies to control, restrict or ban cruising.

The Christchurch bylaw would apply to the four main avenues, and favourite boy-racer areas of Sumner, and would apply at nights from Thursday to Monday.

Mayor Bob Parker said the bylaw's biggest impact would be tackling noisy vehicles, which he said made up about 95 per cent of the boy-racer problem.

He said the move could be seen as draconian, but the council and police needed powers to tackle the boy-racer problem.

He expected wide public support for the bylaw, which he hoped could be enforced by the middle of this year."We are going to solve this problem and, measure by measure, we are getting there," he said.

People breaching the bylaw could face a range of penalties, from a $150 ticket to a fine of up to $1000.

Transport Minister Steve Joyce, who instigated the anti-cruising law change, said the bylaw plan was "encouraging".

"If you have a specific problem area like the four avenues, this is designed to cope with that," he said. "It is not the whole solution, but it is a tool that could be useful."

Joyce said the bylaw would be enforceable.

"The legislation got a fair going-over in terms of the definitions and how it is administered. It seems a relatively straightforward definition," he said. "The police feel it is workable."

Council staff are proposing a one-hour period for the cruising bylaw. If drivers use the same stretch of specified road more frequently and have an overly noisy vehicle or are in a convoy, they will breach the bylaw.

Staff said that because it would set a precedent, the bylaw faced an increased risk of legal challenge. They believed, however, it would be a reasonable and permitted limit on the right to freedom of movement because it banned cruising, not all motorists, on particular streets.

A paper on the draft bylaw, to be tabled at the council meeting on Thursday, says 40 per cent of all infringement notices issued by police last year for "anti-social road-user activities" were in the areas where cruising would be banned.

Police would enforce the bylaw, although the council may pay for cameras and new registration plate-reading technology.

The staff paper said three issues prompted the need for the bylaw – "wheelies, doughnuts and drifting" happening across the city, boy racers being attracted to the four avenues, and the same groups later congregating just outside the central city.

Public submissions will close on March 25. The council will then hold a hearing before preparing a final draft of the bylaw.