Paula Bennett

Wellington, May 7 NZPA - Waitakere MP Paula Bennett is helping find a local body solution to remove a brothel across the road from an intermediate school in west Auckland.

The board of trustees and parents at Henderson Intermediate are upset the brothel has been opened opposite the school, attended by 500 pupils aged 10 to 12, on Lincoln Rd.

Ms Bennett told The New Zealand Herald she would meet the Auckland Transition Agency, responsible for setting up the Super City, and Waitakere deputy mayor Penny Hulse to see if it was possible for a bylaw to be pushed through between now and local elections in October.

If Waitakere City Council enacted a bylaw restricting where brothels could be, it would be rolled into the new Super City Council with all territorial bylaws and district plans.

Board of trustees chairman Ron Crawford and school principal Bruce Dale initially contacted local MP Chris Carter but then met Ms Bennett.

The council treated small brothels like any other business operating from home under its district plan.

A new bylaw would have to prove that a brothel caused a nuisance, created a public health or safety issue, or was going to lead to offensive behaviour in public places.

Ms Hulse had called for a review of prostitution laws after the brothel opened, but the Government has ruled that out.