The Christchurch City Council is taking a hands-off approach to a planned Boobs on Bikes parade in the city next year.

A parade held in Auckland yesterday, to promote the Erotica Lifestyles Expo, attracted an estimated 100,000 spectators to Queen Street. An Erotica Lifestyles Expo will be held next March at the Christchurch Convention Centre, with an informal parade planned before the event. Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said that although the event was tacky, there was little the council could do to stop it.

“It is distasteful and tacky and I will certainly not be going to stand in the street, but it is clear that some people regard it as an intriguing and voyeuristic opportunity,” he said.

“I would much rather we did not have it in our city, but what is clear is there is precious little local government can do to stop it. It would be nice if nobody turned out to watch it and they just went away.”

A council spokeswoman said the parade would not need a permit. “They will be treated as just another road user, so they don’t need permission or a permit,” she said. “As long as they don’t interfere with the flow of traffic they’re fine, and then it would be a police matter.”

Police have said that their legal advice is that unless there is a breach of the peace they cannot intervene as it is not a police but a moral issue.

A legal bid was made to halt yesterday’s Auckland Boobs on Bikes parade. However, in a judgment released on Tuesday, Auckland District Court Judge Nicola Mathers rejected the Auckland City Council’s bid to get an interim injunction stopping the Queen Street parade.

The judge said that although opponents may find the parade offensive or tasteless, the fact that 80,000 people attended meant a significant number did not agree.

Hundreds of people, mainly men, lined inner-city streets in March last year when the parade was held in Christchurch.