Keeping more than six chickens on urban properties will require a licence from Auckland Council under a new proposal for a bylaw to prevent stock from becoming a nuisance to neighbours.
A licence would also be needed to keep a rooster, ducks and geese, or a goat or a sheep to keep down the grass on a big urban section.
The proposal for uniform controls and standards for keeping stock goes to the council's governing body to decide next week whether to seek public comment.
A staff report to the council regulatory and bylaws committee yesterday says the council gets 420 complaints a year about poultry. It suggests the need for compulsory uniform minimum standards to manage the type and number of chickens kept in urban areas.
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