Tauranga's Mayor says the city's begging ban - now revoked - should never have been introduced in the first place.



A council bylaw stopped rough sleepers from staying within five metres from the city centre. But that bylaw was revoked this week, less than a year after the previous council established it.

Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell says the bylaw had no legal standing and it's time to get cracking on an alternative.

"This is a bylaw that was passed that would not be able to be defended in a court of law," he told Newshub.