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The local council this week received unanimous support at the Local Government Association’s annual conference for its proposal for the establishment of a regulatory body to scrutinise the character of legal brothel operators.

Currently councils have no grounds to refuse a development application for legal brothels in acceptable zoning areas if they comply with planning regulations.

Eurobodalla Mayor Fergus Thomson said, despite community expectation, local government was left with no control over who runs a legal brothel.

“We have this situation where the State Government has outlawed motorcycle gangs yet we knowingly had to allow a brothel to be put in the hands of an outlaw group,” Cr Thomson said.

“It is this moral dilemma where we have to approve a DA that ticks all the boxes in an approved location. We have no say, nor does anyone else, in verifying the eligibility of the operators.

“We had to approve it, knowing that a motorbike group is involved in the running of it ... it doesn’t look good for local council.”

Cr Thomson said councils currently had only the costly option of taking the matter to the Land and Environment Court.

“We can take it to the Land and Environment Court and there have been cases where that has happened but the court has no right to oppose that Development Application on moral or religious grounds,” he said.