By SIMON COLLINS
Three months after being forced to sell his business to the Waitakere Licensing Trust, Auckland Regional Councillor Carl Harding is celebrating a win that could point to the end of the trust's liquor monopoly.
Mr Harding sold his Thirsty Rooster restaurant in Glendene in September after the police applied to cancel his liquor licence, alleging that he was operating a "tavern" in an area where the trust has a legal monopoly.
But yesterday Mr Harding celebrated getting back his manager's licence after the police accepted that the terms of the restaurant's sale prevented him from trading in the area for three years.
"I said to the constable, if I'm not fit to hold a manager's licence then I'm not fit to be a JP or a regional councillor," said Mr Harding, who is both.
In May, when the police first took action against him, Mr Harding threatened to resign from the Labour Party unless Labour agreed to abolish the local monopolies of the seven liquor licensing trusts that still have them.
He said yesterday that he was sickened by the Government's inaction on the issue, but had not resigned.
"The Labour Party is far bigger than Carl Harding."
But his small win could soon become a complete victory for opponents of the trust monopoly of liquor sales in West Auckland because of a possible law change.
The chief executive of West Auckland Trust Services, Murray Spearman, said a Sale of Liquor Amendment Bill was expected back from a select committee shortly with a new clause requiring all seven trusts to hold referendums on their local monopolies at next year's local body elections.
"It strikes me as a fairly good way of dealing with it," Mr Spearman said.
"We have always been happy for the local people to make the decision. They own us."
Meanwhile, the Liquor Licensing Authority has granted new liquor licences for The Korner in Kelston and Murphy's Bar and Grill in New Lynn, which were closed this year because they were held to breach the Portage Licensing Trust's monopoly.
Murphy's Bar and Grill has reopened under a licence to operate as a restaurant and has promised to ensure that "every person present on the premises intends to dine."
The Korner will reopen in January with a licence to operate an "entertainment" centre, including gambling machines, pool tables and a TAB. Liquor may be served as long as entertainment is the "predominant purpose" of the business.
Proprietor Barry Waterton said the experience had cost him $30,000 in legal fees, and he estimated that the police, the Portage trust and the Waitakere City Council had paid more than $30,000 in costs as well. Kelston had lost about $300,000 in grants from his poker machines.
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