Tauranga City Council is acting to unravel the confusing and contradictory rules regarding election signs by proposing amendments to the local elections policy.

The policy, which was adopted in September 2011, and amended in August 2013, contains contradictions between the Election Signs Policy, the Street Use and Public Places Bylaw and the City Plan.

Election signs rules are being re-jigged – again.

Under the Policy election signs are to be in accordance with the requirements of Council's Street Use and Public Places Bylaw 2013, the City Plan and the Policy. But the timeframe for the display of election signs in the City Plan and the Policy is different, and there is no time limit for the display of election signs in the Bylaw. The Bylaw refers to the Policy.

On the City Plan rules candidates can display election signs on private land six weeks before the election, compared to four weeks on public land as defined under the Elections Policy.

Election signs are a cause of contention among candidates and between candidates and council and significantly increase the workload of monitoring officers each election, says the staff report discussed at Monday's Strategy and Policy Committee meeting.

A further issue to consider is the impact of social media, and whether the Policy should be expanded to cover controls, if any, that Tauranga City Council should place on candidates use of social media for the purposes of campaigning.

Proposed amendments to the policy include:

• Extending the period of the display of election signs from four weeks on public land to six to make the timeframe consistent with the City Plan:
• Providing a map of sites around Tauranga City where it is permitted that one election sign per candidate per designated area (yellow line on map) can be displayed;
• Deleting the exclusion of election signs on vehicles in the definition of sign to ensure consistency of definitions between the policy and the Street Use and Public Places Bylaw; and Council Controlled Organisation assets are not to be used by any party and/or candidate to gain any electoral advantage.

The proposed 2016 draft amended Local Elections Policy will be open for public submissions from Wednesday, 13 April 2016 until 5.00pm Wednesday, 27 April 2016.

Copies of the proposed bylaw and submission forms are available from:

• Council's Willow Street Customer Service Centre;
• Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Greerton and Papamoa Libraries;
• online - www.tauranga.govt.nz (under the ‘Have Your Say' section); or
• contact Rebecca de Farias on 07 577 7000 with any queries