Councils may get power to define suburb boundaries

Legislation to define the boundaries of suburbs in cities and towns has been proposed to try to clear up confusion.

The change could mean real estate agents would have to be precise about the area properties were in. The prestige of some suburbs has often led to the temptation to stretch boundaries.

The proposed change, part of a review of the Geographic Board Act 1946, would give councils the responsibility to define suburb boundaries. Although the bill is still in the drafting stage, the legislation could make it enforceable under council bylaw to use a council-allocated name.

Wellington City Council is so far the only one to have defined its suburb boundaries and names. The council began the suburban boundary project in 1999 and after nearly 500 submissions the boundaries were approved in August 2003.

Wellington council land information team leader Michael Brownie expects the bill to include a provision to enforce the use of the correct suburb name, in the same way that changing an incorrect address can be enforced under council bylaw.

Mr Brownie said the concerns of emergency services were the key drive in his council pressing ahead with their regulations. "We were very conscious if there was a case of confusion, we would be the ones held accountable. It was clear there were things in our power to fix that."

Brownie said the council felt reducing confusion, especially for emergency services, was too important to wait for a review of the Geographic Board Act.

Fire Service data and application manager Malcolm Macfarlane said differing versions of suburb names caused confusion for the service and wasted valuable time.

"The absolute key thing is that we get the best possible picture of what people call their suburbs."

He said the boundaries would ensure the Fire Service knew what the caller was describing.

However, there are still question marks over how enforceable the legislation would be.

Land Information New Zealand, which is leading the review of the act, said as the bill was still being drafted it would be premature to speculate on whether the suburb names could be enforced.

Mr Brownlie said although the Wellington council could not enforce the use of suburb names at present, if a retailer advertised its location with the incorrect suburb name the council would "politely advise them of what the correct name is".

He hoped that real estate agents would adhere to the boundaries, and said it could just about be considered misleading advertising to change a suburb to suit marketing. Barfoot and Thompson auctions manager Tony Worsp said some suburbs "have an advantage from a marketing point of view" but from a real estate point of view it would be better to have defined suburb areas.

Harcourts Wellington city manager Antonia Brown said his company generally used the boundaries set out by the council but there was sometimes a discrepancy between the council and the electoral roll.

NZ Post communications manager Ian Long said suburban boundary definition would have the benefit of providing its customers with greater certainty about the delivery time of their mail. At present more than 50 per cent of the mail processed by sort machines was inconsistently addressed.