Drinkers may be stuck for supplies after 9pm

A council hearings panel is recommending that the closing time for off-licence alcohol sales be brought forward by two hours to 9pm. Photo / Thinkstock

Councillor says aim is to make city a healthier and safer place, although central bars unaffected.

Aucklanders wanting an alcoholic nightcap will have to stock up earlier or go clubbing if a recommendation for supermarkets and bottle stores to stop selling liquor at 9pm wins council approval.

A council hearings panel is recommending that the closing time for off-licence alcohol sales be brought forward by two hours from 11pm - and trading not start again until 9am the next day.

That compares with an existing national "default" opening time of 7am, which Retail NZ and its supermarket members have been lobbying hard to retain.

But the panel of four councillors and one member of the council's independent Maori statutory board is being more lenient towards bar and nightclub owners and their patrons, saying premises in downtown Auckland should be allowed to stay open until 4am.

Those outside an area bordered by the central motorways junction would have to close an hour earlier, at 3am, although all bars could re-open at 8am.

That means bars in Ponsonby, previously included in the central city under a draft local alcohol licensing policy which drew more than 2600 submissions, will have to close by 3am if a committee of all councillors adopts the recommendations in May - and they survive an appeals process.

The panel has also recommended a two-year moratorium on granting new off-licences in 21 areas considered to be experiencing disproportionate levels of alcohol-related harm where there are already large numbers of bottle shops - notably in South Auckland, but also including Glen Eden and Glen Innes.

Councillor Bill Cashmore, chair of the panel, said yesterday that its primary focus had been to make Auckland "a healthier and safer but still a great place for fun and enjoyment".

"Our over-riding principle is to ensure there's a minimisation of alcohol-related harm, but to ensure the vitality continues in Auckland - the city that sleeps just a bit is a good thing," he said.

Mr Cashmore said the reason for recommending an earlier closing time for off-licence sales than 10pm was concern about people "making inappropriate decisions after they've been drinking a few" and then deciding to go back for more supplies.

"The responsible drinkers are organised - they are not the people who make split, on-the-spot decisions, but who plan ahead," he said.

"What we want to avoid is the spontaneous decisions that can lead to harm."

He said the panel believed a high level of professionalism among holders of on-licences should be rewarded by sticking fairly close to the status quo. But it expected them to "lift their game" higher, a goal to be reinforced by council inspectors.

"Our evidence is that 4am is working in the CBD - it's about encouraging the industry to do the right thing rather than beating them with a stick and potentially not having them work with us."

The recommended on-licence hours are more liberal than proposals in the draft document for a 3am closing time in downtown Auckland and 1am elsewhere.

Mr Cashmore said that would have raised the spectre of people driving from outlying areas to the CBD after local bars closed at 1am.

"We had a real concern about migration ..."

Neither of the two largest supermarket chains, Countdown and Foodstuffs, would comment before the full council made up its mind.

But Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford feared the proposed shorter hours would seriously inconvenience many shoppers, including those wanting to add a bottle of wine or a few beers to early morning purchases for later consumption.

"The impacts of the proposal will affect all Aucklanders and they [the council panel] are really using a sledge-hammer - they're going to be impacting the majority to help deal with a minority of cases where people are abusing alcohol," he said.

"There's no local evidence to suggest that changing off-licence hours is going to reduce alcohol-related harm, which is the requirement for a local licensing policy."

But Hospitality NZ's Auckland vice-president, Russell Gray, said it was pleased about a "level playing-field" approach towards off-licence hours, for which there would be no exemptions.