Council initiated the proposed Maintenace of Works in Waterway Areas Local Law as part of the Local Laws Review that was undertaken between 2021 and 2023. Works in waterway areas includes, but isn't limited to, canal revetment walls, seawalls and jetties.

Council invited public comment on this proposed Local Law from 2 November 2022 to 31 March 2023. We received significant feedback. We are now working through the issues that were raised. To allow more time to thoroughly do this, we have separated this Local Law from the package of 13 new Local Laws that were adopted on 8 November 2023. You can read about these other laws here.

This Local Law as proposed in November 2022 provides a regulatory framework for:

• regulating the maintenance of canal revetment walls, seawalls and other works
• specifying who is responsible for maintaining these works and the standard to which the works must be maintained
• giving Council power to enforce compliance with the Local Law
• giving Council power to require, in appropriate circumstances, the construction of certain works
• protecting the interests of buyers by ensuring sellers give notice of their potential obligations under this Local Law
• protecting the health and safety of users and the health of waterway areas
• implementing a process for dealing with abandoned works (e.g. pontoons and jetties).

The key outcomes resulting from the adoption of this Local Law as proposed in November 2022 are:

• maintenance and repair of works in waterway areas is the responsibility of the person/s whose land is subject to, or receives a benefit from, the works (responsible person)
• the responsible person must ensure these works do not fall into disrepair or cause harm to other people, property or the environment
• the responsible person must maintain a canal revetment wall, except where maintenance works are specifically covered by a special charge
• people build, at their own cost, canal revetment walls and seawalls where it is necessary to protect waterway areas and other land or persons who use waterway areas, or to avoid or minimise environmental harm or damage to waterway areas
• people may enter neighbouring land for the purpose of joining a seawall or revetment wall to an existing wall on neighbouring land (authorised activities)
• relevant persons (i.e. the neighbouring property owner) may enter into a remediation agreement with Council if damage has been caused to their property, seawall or revetment wall during authorised activities.