NORTH BATTLEFORD - The City of North Battleford is looking to bring in a new bylaw soon, aimed at restricting access to alleyways at night.
At their Planning Committee meeting on Monday night, council members heard from administration officials about a proposed Late Evening Alley Access Bylaw.
According to a city memo from administration, the intent of the bylaw is to encourage residents and pedestrians to use the well-lit streets when going through the city during the nighttime hours, while deterring activity in dark alleyways. The idea is to deter mischief during the late evening and early morning hours in alleyways.
The proposed bylaw would restrict access to alleys throughout the city between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. each night. According to the bylaw provision, no person shall walk through, drive through, be located in or otherwise use an alley during the restricted access period.
However, there are several exemptions which still permit alley access for owners, principals, managers or employees of business premises abutting the alley, or for permanent residents and their guests who require access to their homes from the alley, among others.
The proposed bylaw also states anyone contravening would be liable to a maximum fine of no more than $2,500.
Council had previously directed administration to look into further ways to address community safety in the community. Administration says this initiative is to complement to others such as “the 9 p.m. routine” encouraging residents to secure their property and cars each night, as well as the regulation of catalytic converters in the city.
North Battleford would not be the first in the province to bring in such an alleys bylaw. It was noted Prince Albert and Nipawin already have similar restrictions in place.
The hope from council is that an alley access bylaw might achieve for the City what a curfew cannot. For years North Battleford had looked at how to better enforce curfews to deter criminal activity, and Councillor Kelli Hawtin pointed to the city’s past frustrations on that point.
“It’s something we can’t quite get a handle on, and it’s something I think a few years ago we had some legal advice that said we really can’t implement a curfew citywide,” said Hawtin. “So I think this is a really interesting way to look at kind of those dark corridors and put a little bit of regulation on them.”
Hawtin had also suggested going a step further and having the bylaw cover parks as well, noting there were similar issues there, but that might be subject to a separate bylaw.
Councillor Len Taylor saw the alley access bylaw as a way for officers to be able to stop people and ask them to explain why they are in an alleyway. “If you don’t have even an ID and you can’t explain while you’re there, and obviously there is some reason why somebody’s clearly not supposed to be, then the officer could act accordingly. I think it’s more of a permissive approach as opposed to restrictive,” said Taylor.
City clerk Stacey Hadley said it was their hope that the officers would “exercise good judgement, in many tools of the law. Unfortunately there is judgement that applies and that is a sticking point.”
To let people know of the change, the plan would be for the city to launch a communications and social media campaign. The proposed bylaw is likely to be back at council for consideration Sept. 25.
You can no longer count on social media to deliver important news to you. Keep your news a touch away by bookmarking SASKTODAY.ca's homepage at this link.
Subscribe to SASKTODAY.ca newsletter to get our daily news to your inbox.
