Noosa CEO rejects council party house ‘cops’

A Noosa councillor says there has as to be a point when the council decides to step up and act against party house impacts.

Noosa councillor Amelia Lorentson believes local laws officers should have greater powers to help control party houses.

Don't expect to see flying squads of local laws officers swooping on Noosa short stay accommodation "party houses" any time on council CEO Brett de Chastel's watch.

Mr de Chastel poured cold water on a suggestion in Noosa Council's general committee meeting on Monday by councillor Amelia Lorentson for greater council powers to enforce planning prohibition on party houses.

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Noosa has battled to control short-term lettings in residential areas that attract large number of tenants whose rowdy socialising impacts nearby neighbours.

"I understand that this is a police matter and that we can only regulate the land use," Cr Lorentson said.

"Police as we know are under resourced … my question is why can't we give our local laws officers greater powers?" Cr Lorentson said.

She said there had to be a point when the council decided to step up and act.

However, Mr de Chastel rejected the idea, citing concerns about putting local laws officers in harm's way.

Noosa through its planning scheme has prohibited approving "party houses".

"I don't want my council staff being out there at two o'clock on a Saturday morning knocking on a door of a whole lot of drunk people telling them to shut up," he said.

"That's a really dangerous workplace health and safety environment and they're not trained for it.

"The people who are trained for that sort of quite difficult issue are the police."

Earlier Cr Tom Wegener had asked if the council would be embarking on greater enforcement of development approval conditions for short-stay accommodation rentals.

Council development assessment manager Kerri Coyle said the council had a compliance officer whose job it was to ensure all developments were operating within the conditions of approval.

"Compliance is not an easy matter but there are tools under the legislation that we can use to ensure people meet their conditions," Ms Coyle said.

"We start with an educational approach and point out that they're not complying.

"We can step that up if we don't get appropriate response."

Ms Coyle said compliance "tools" could include fines.

Council approvals for short stays generally require offsite rental owners or property managers to be contactable and have a code of conduct for renters in place.

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