Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw

The first Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw was adopted in 2019 - it sets out local laws that control activities like tattooing, beauty therapy, keeping animals, and conduct in public places. The bylaw expires next year, this means we have the opportunity to make some improvements and get your comments before a new bylaw is adopted.

The majority of the bylaw is working well and will be rolled over. There are some proposed changes that need your feedback to make sure they reflect the views of the community.

Some key proposed changes include:

• introduce requirements for businesses using footpaths and other public places for sandwich boards and outdoor dining. This would ensure the pathways are accessible for other users and do not create a safety risk (Part Two – Public Places (including Parks and Reserves).
• introduce requirements to minimise nuisance and risk to health and safety from the keeping of animals. This includes new requirements on the location and number of beehives able to be kept on urban properties, and standards for the slaughtering of stock or poultry to ensure it is done in a way that is not offensive to other people (Part Five – Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees).
  
• prohibiting vehicles from accessing the foreshore of Castlepoint Beach that runs parallel to Jetty Road, and limit the speed of vehicles on Castlepoint and Riversdale Beaches to 10km/h. This makes it safer for beach users.
• exempting practitioners undertaking Tā moko on a marae and in accordance with tikanga Māori from the requirements of Part Eight - Beauty Therapy, Tattooing and Skin Piercing. Tā moko is considered to be a taonga (or cultural treasure). Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi protects Māori rangatiratanga over taonga.
• introduce three mobile trading sites at Riversdale Beach to respond to community demand and to align with the approach for Castlepoint. This would let mobile traders, like food trucks, sell goods in public in the permitted areas. We are also proposing to remove some stall sites in the Masterton CBD due to low demand for these sites and increased pedestrian traffic.
• ensure conduct at our cemeteries is appropriate. Changes are proposed to prevent people from interrupting a funeral service or behaving in a way that creates a nuisance or offense to others. Placing any objectionable markings on monuments or other structures is also not allowed. (Part Seven – Cemeteries)

The bylaw is split into eleven parts, the proposed changes for each part are available in full in the Statement of Proposal and are also listed on this page under Key documents and Draft Bylaws. You don't have to provide feedback on every single proposed change, you can just talk about the things that matter most to you.

Have your say

Consultation will opens on 25 June and close at 4pm Friday 25 July 2025.

Feedback can be provided in a number of ways:

• Completing an online submission form
• Downloading a fillable submission form (PDF, 171KB) and emailing it to: submissions@mstn.govt.nz
• Phoning the Masterton team on 06 370 6300 between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) and tell us what you think.
• Picking up a submission form from one of our libraries or customer service centres and posting it to Masterton District Council, Freepost 112477, PO Box 444, Masterton 5840, or dropping it off to one of our libraries or customer service centres.
  • Masterton District Council 161 Queen Street, Masterton
  • Carterton District Council 28 Holloway Street, Carterton
  • South Wairarapa District Council at Martinborough Library, Waihinga Centre, Texas Street, Martinborough

A Hearing will be held on Thursday 14 August for anyone who would like to speak to their submission. The Wairarapa Policy Working Group will deliberate in September with the Bylaw expected to be taking effect from 1 October.