Piha Cafe finally wins approval to serve alcohol during Cup

Pete and Pattie Dillon, owners of Piha Cafe. Photo / Kellie Blizard

The Piha Cafe will offer something stronger than organic icecream from Saturday after succeeding with one of two bids for a liquor licence.

Owners Pete and Pattie Dillon were yesterday preparing the rustic 35-seat premises for the on-licence granted by the Auckland Council for one year. This allows sale of wine and beer from 11am to 7pm during and after the Rugby World Cup.

Mr Dillon said the cafe made two identical applications for the licence on July 29 - one through the council's district licensing agency and one to the Rugby World Cup Authority, which has power to fast-track licences for the tournament.

Two bids were made because of concern that the agency would not be able to hear the application before November and the cafe would miss a chance for trade during the tournament.

Five objections were made to the authority application.

However, before it could hold a hearing tomorrow, approval came through from the agency for a licence valid for during and after the tournament. The cafe then withdrew the application to the cup authority.

It was granted because it received no objections and met the required standards, said western licensing and compliance manager Max Wilde.

Advisers to the RWC authority recommended approval, with standard cafe-style licence conditions.

"We had over 200 signatures of people who use the cafe who wanted it to have a licence," said Mr Dillon.

The cafe would open six days a week for the tournament period when an influx of visitors was expected to the west coast beach.

The cafe's licence comes after a three-year $200,000 legal wrangle to try to stop its opening in October 2009. The main opponents of the cafe, the Protect Piha Heritage Society, lodged a formal objection to the cup authority application. However, society chairman Peter Hosking said it did not know about the other bid.

"In fact, the application to the authority said there was no time to get a full licence, so obviously we thought they were not applying for a full licence. Had we known that we would have objected.

"We are concerned that the community missed out on a chance to have its say whether there should be a licence of this nature - the first day licence in Piha."

The only licensed premises were operated by community groups - the Piha Memorial RSA and the bowling and surf life saving clubs, where bars opened later in the day.

Mr Hosking said even some supporters were opposed to the cafe serving alcohol because of the challenging surf beach and difficult road.