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May 27, 2015 at 4:30 PM

Auckland Council have released their provisional Local Alcohol Policy (LAP). WAVES Trust, Community Waitakere and Waitakere Community Action on Alcohol Policy Coalition coordinated a joint submission on the LAP last year.

You can read our submission here...

The provisional LAP has regional policies, as well as some special rules for the city centre and the priority overlay, which covers suburbs experiencing higher levels of alcohol-related harm.

Key policies in the provisional LAP are:

Opening hours:

• regional off-licence hours of 9am to 9pm (e.g. bottle stores, supermarkets)
• regional on-licence hours of 8am to 3am (e.g. bars, restaurants, cafes, nightclubs) except
• City Centre on-licence hours of 8am to 4am (no change from the national default hours introduced on 18 December 2013)
• club licence hours of 9am to 1am (e.g. sports clubs), with an allowance for RSAs to open at 5am on ANZAC Day and
• special licence hours to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Restrictions on the location of new licences:

• a Local Impacts Report for higher-risk licence applications, which will include reporting on local schools and land uses
• a two-year freeze on new off-licences in the Priority Overlay and the City Centre
• a presumption against granting new off-licences in Neighbourhood Centres, and in the Priority Overlay and the City Centre once the freeze expires.

• A Local Impacts Report for the renewal of higher-risk licences in the Priority Overlay to help with setting conditions.
• A range of discretionary conditions able to be applied to licences.

In particular we are cautiously optimistic about the restriction to off licence trading hours as there are many studies that conclude that limiting access decreases the harm caused by alcohol. We also know that there are correlations between excess alcohol consumption and family violence. 

This LAP is still provisional pending appeals.