Ban gang patches. Get dogs off beaches. Clear vagrants out of the city. They are easy calls to make for a city councillor looking for headlines and a photo opportunity, but acting on them can quickly bog councils down in wider issues.

Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout's call for Tauranga City Council's policy on vagrants is being challenged by Councillor John Robson.

There are a number of people who choose to live on the streets, while others have nowhere else to go.

When Kelvin told the City Vision Committee meeting that he would look at Hamilton's vagrancy policy, John responded by saying: 'Is that the same policy that drives people out of the central city into the nearby suburbs? Is that a successful policy?”

A previous Tauranga City Council learned the downside of moving homeless people out of the city centre when the permanent downtown liquor bans were created.

It had the effect of driving the daytime drinkers to Cliff Rd and The Domain.

'Unless you put in place a comprehensive system for dealing with the vagrancy you can wind up with situation where they move from a retail area into another area and they can wind up being pushed into some inner city suburbs, that was the observation I was making,” says John.

'If you really want to address this issue it needs to be by working with social services and almost working in effect with your central government. You can't be in a situation of just deciding we are literally going to hose the streets to make sure no one sleeps there overnight.

'When you end up moving people who are homeless out of your city centre, they don't just vanish. So where do they go?”

Homelessness in New Zealand urban areas has become noticeable following the government decision to close large mental hospitals.

The institutions had their own issues, but so do the street sleepers of today, says John.

'There's a high level of illness among the homeless community, mental issues and substance abuse. And moving them on doesn't address the issues.”

The council needs to give some thought to what the solutions are and who can provide them. Central government will have to be involved, and while there is potentially a role for the councillors, they need to be sure they are not addressing issues outside their brief.

'Any significant social issue is not something a council can attack on its own.

'I suppose it's alright to identify the issue or to identify with someone who wants the issue addressed, but I think it behoves any councillor who wants to raise these issues to bring some sort of solution or proposal to the table, otherwise it can look like posturing.

'Whether it be dogs on a Papamoa beach or homeless people in the city centre there's no city councillor who's unaware of the odd incident, there's no city councillor who's unaware that there is an issue of some level that we would like to address,” says John.

'But before the topic gets a headline and their name and photo in the paper, it would be good to do some work.

'Particularly if at the same time you are saying I want to keep the rates down, and I want to manage this, and, and, and.

'The question is, what's the solution? And is the solution workable, sustainable, practical, – and does that solution line up with all the other things you say you are in favour of.

'Let's think things through and make considered contributions for complex debates. No knee jerk responses.”