The new Public Spaces Unattended Property laws commence on 1 November 2022.

The new laws include harsher penalties for owners of shopping trolleys, unregistered cars and trailers, and stray stock animals. These laws mark the biggest change to impounding laws, in NSW, in nearly 30 years.

The new laws provide councils, other public land managers and police with stronger powers and penalties to rid our footpaths, streets, parks, bushland and waterways of abandoned and unattended property.

* Any notice that is issued after 8pm at night will be taken to have been issued at 7am the following morning. Any notice that is issued before 7am on a given day will be taken to have been issued at 7am that day.

* Smaller operators with fewer than 25 shopping trolleys are not required to collect unattended trolleys within a 3-hour window. Instead, these operators should be given a notice period of 4 days, regardless of whether the trolley is obstructing access, posing a risk, interfering with public amenity or left in the same place for too long (section 4 of the Regulation).

Please review the below relevant documentation.

Infographic

Fact Sheet

Code of Practice