Local Alcohol Policy: Tauranga residents encouraged to share their views on changes

Tauranga City Council is revising its Local Alcohol Policy. Photo / NZME

Proposed changes to alcohol supply rules for Tauranga include not allowing any supermarket sales before 10am and banning new bottle shops from some suburbs.

Tauranga City Council said in a statement it was encouraging the community to share their views on where and when alcohol can be bought in Tauranga.

Consultation on the revised draft Local Alcohol Policy opened today for one month and follows significant changes to the draft policy first consulted in December 2021.

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said the revised proposed changes were not aimed at stopping people from purchasing alcohol, but controlling the times they could access it to help reduce the harm caused by alcohol in the community.

She encouraged everyone interested in the policy, even those who have previously provided their thoughts, to share their views on the recent updates, she said in the statement.

"We understand that the requirement to re-consult on this policy may be onerous for some people, but we want to make sure it achieves what it sets out to do, which is to reduce alcohol-related harm," she said.

Hearings on the policy will be held in November this year, following which the council will consider submissions in December.

The council's Local Alcohol Policy was last updated in 2015. It deals with the sale and supply of alcohol.

The proposed change since last year's consultation on the draft policy include:

• Keeping the closing time for on-licence premises in the city centre (such as bars and nightclubs) at 3am rather than 2am, as proposed in the earlier draft policy
• Removing one-way door provisions for premises such as bars and nightclubs
• Moving the time alcohol can start being sold from 7am to 10am for all off-licenced premises (such as bottle stores and supermarkets)
• No new on-licenced premises in areas zoned industrial in the City Plan
• A range of discretionary conditions that can be applied to off-licenses
• No new bottle stores established in suburbs where increased access to alcohol is likely to result in greater harm.

These suburbs are ones with a deprivation index of seven or more and include Yatton Park, Baypark-Kairua, Greerton South, Gate Pa, Tauranga Hospital, Hairini, Welcome Bay East, Tauranga South, Te Reti, Pāpāmoa Beach North, Brookfield West, Arataki South, Tauranga Central and Mount Maunganui Central.

People can have their say on the Tauranga City Council website or by picking up a consultation pack from the council customer service centre at 21 Devonport Rd or one of our libraries, until September 16, 2022.