The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act (2012) gave councils the right to set alcohol policies for density of outlets and hours of opening for the sale of alcohol via Local Alcohol Policies. Alcohol Action, the DHB, the Police, and others made submissions on the Hastings/Napier Local Alcohol Policy in early 2014.
Concerned to reduce the harm caused by alcohol, they recommended, among other things, a reduction in the hours that local off-licences and on-licences can be open, one of the most effective measures to reduce alcohol-related harm as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Years have passed and the policy is still not ratified by the councils. The policy they developed did recommend some reduction in the hours of availability of alcohol.
They proposed the status quo of 3am for on-licences with a one way door after 2am, and 9am to 9pm hours for off-licences. However, the opening hours for supermarkets were changed to 7am after deliberations around submissions from commercial interests. These deliberations were behind closed doors because of the commercial sensitivity of the matters discussed, we were told at the time.
So why the delay to adopt the policy? Even with the compromises already made I expect that commercial interests have challenged it as they have all over the country. If that is the case, it is interesting that the public do not know what these appeals are.