Local Alcohol Policy Public Deliberations

Public deliberations on Auckland’s Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) were completed today. A panel of councillors, as well as policy staff, discussed each aspect of the draft LAP including policies on areas, density, hours, discretionary conditions and more. Their recommendations will now form the Provisional LAP which will go to council’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee in May to be approved.

The following is a digest of the recommendations made over the course of the public deliberations (19 & 20 March).

Day One: Items 1 and 2 included a welcome from the Chair, Cr Bill Cashmore, and an acknowledgement of both the staff that have worked on the policy and the thousands of public submissions on the policy. The scope and purpose of the LAP and how this is aligned to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act was then laid out.

Item 3: Policy Areas

• 3.1 Broad Area A – this area was originally proposed to include Auckland CBD, Newton and Ponsonby in the draft LAP. Rather than an Area A, this will now be known as the Central Alcohol Management Area under the Provisional LAP and will only include the city area between the two motorways.

• 3.2 Broad Area B – this is the general policy position for all other areas outside the Central Alcohol Management Area but does not include Priority Areas.

• 3.3 Priority Overlay Areas – Recommendation to remove priority overlays in CBD was agreed. Other areas were added to or removed throughout the region based on Police data and reports comparing licence density. For consistency, areas have now been defined using the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP).

Item 4: Policies relating to off-licences

The focus on day one was on the various aspects of location and density for off-licences - bottle stores, wine shops and supermarkets - under the policy.

• 4.1 Location and Density: Environmental and Cumulative Impacts Assessment

A decision was made to rename the ECIA to the Local Impact Report (LIR). These reports are simplified in that they will focus on facts and will be done by the council’s licensing inspectorate and they report on any risks, delicate/ sensitive sites and so on when looking at a licensing application.

Applying the LIR tool to off-licences will be used for medium, high and very high risk premises.

• 4.2 Location and Density: Temporary freeze

The draft policy proposed a temporary freeze for two years on new off-licences in the central area and the Priority Overlay to avoid increasing access to alcohol in areas of Auckland experiencing the highest levels of alcohol-related harm. This recommendation was discussed and it was agreed to keep the temporary freeze for two years.

The recommendation was agreed to apply to off-licences in the central area and priority areas.

Exemptions of the Temporary Freeze rule will include complimentary off-sale licences such as Smith & Caughey’s, Auctioneers and remote sellers (those that sell online and are therefore not public facing). Cr Krum wished to exempt new supermarkets but vote was against.

• 4.3 Location and Density: Rebuttable presumption

A rebuttable presumption clause was proposed to create a tool to deal with the granting of off-licences once the temporary freeze is lifted. The panel felt that the recommendation to retain the rebuttable presumption after the two year expiry would allow greater management of off-licence density in the central area, priority areas and introducing to neighbourhood centres, based on the PAUP.

The criteria under the rebuttable presumption place the onus on the applicant to prove that they can manage and supply alcohol in a responsible way. The licensing inspectorate, Medical Officer of Health and Police are still expected to provide a LIR on a licence application. The DLC must have regard for the LAP.

Day two

Policies relating to off-licences continues

• 4.4 Off-licence renewals

As a result of submissions, a new clause has been added to the LAP that allows a LIR be completed for medium, high and high risk off-licence renewals.

• 4.5 Discretionary conditions for off-licences and policy tools

Recommendations were made, many in light of recent ARLA decisions on other council’s LAP. These recommendations were really on simplifying the commentary around the policy on discretionary conditions – an appendix in the policy can go into detail but a more simple tool for applicants and the public can be used for communications purposes.

Policy tools also discussed were regarding submitters requests that off-licences can extend their hours to the maximum hours. All agreed that maximum hours could not be extended but the DLC or ARLA can place discretionary conditions such as shortening the licensees hours due to concerns noted in the LIR.

• 4.6 Maximum trading hours for off-licences

The maximum hours will be applied once the LAP is in place and this therefore means the national default hours are irrelevant. Only council’s without an LAP will run by the national default hours.

The panel then discussed whether off-licence hours should be on a regional basis, as was recommended by staff. This was strongly agreed with by the panel. Auckland Council had received the highest number of submissions on the subject of maximum hours for off-licences and the panel was agreed on a closing time but much discussion was had regarding the opening hours and whether there should be an exception for supermarkets.

The final decision made today was to recommend a region-wide, Mon-Sun, 9am – 9pm for all off-licences including supermarkets.

• 4.5 Discretionary conditions for off-licences

A number of recommendations were made around policies on discretionary conditions for off-licences – new and renewals - was discussed. This included the removal of intoxicated persons from premises, signage relating to prohibited persons, exterior lighting and CCTV at high-risk off-licences.

Single sales such as RTDs were also discussed to help give guidance to the DLC when making decisions on granting licences. Difficulties such as alcohol percentage and volume as well as the ability for single sales were a concern. The council recommends that where appropriate that DLC or ARLA decides on a case-by-case basis regarding the sales of RTDs when a licensee applies.

A recommendation, at the discretion of the DLC, to include closing of off-licences located near schools (primary and secondary) between 3-4pm was agreed with by the panel.

Item 5: Policies relating to On- licences: the panel agreed that decisions discussed previously that affected off-licences regarding LIR and discretionary conditions should be consistent across the policy, i.e. off and on-licences.

• 5.1. Location and Density

Direction the panel is giving to the DLC regarding location and density in Neighbourhood centres, Metro centres and city-fringe areas (Parnell, Ponsonby and Newton) looks at the dependency of the risk category when contemplating an application for an on-licence.

Council’s policy position on renewing on-licences recommends that DLCs consider the Local Impact Reports.

• 5.2 Maximum trading hours and trial extensions for on-licences

A discussion was held between councillors on the panel around the opening times for on-licences and areas that this would be applied to. This included the need to promote town areas, keep people localised and safe in a controlled environment. It was felt this would encourage good operators – if a licensee doesn’t comply and is not a good host, the licensing authority and police can stop them from operating under the three strikes policy. Migration issues were also discussed and the need for better public transport at night.

The panel agreed that extensions would be removed for on-licences and that the maximum hours allowed for on-licences will be 4am closing for the central area (CBD) and 3am closing in all other areas of the region. It should be noted that if a licensee in a Priority area wishes to apply to extend up to the maximum hours, the DLC would consider both the LIR and the fact that the business is located in a Priority area.

Maximum opening hours for on-licences will be 8am – 4 in the central (CBD) area and 8am – 3am in all other areas.

Chair Cr Cashmore said, “The move to default hours of 4am has worked very well in the CBD since the introduction of the Act. As a growing city with more metro centres, a closing time of 3am is appropriate for the rest of the city. We must have faith in the system that our DLC’s can make careful and pragmatic decisions and, with support by our licensing team, we can ensure that these licensees comply.”

Other things discussed were hotels having the ability to serve at all hours in hotels and caterers having specific hours of operation, 8am - 3am. Council had received submissions on the one-way door policy but the panel felt this was not a proven tool and would not be adding it to the Provisional LAP.

• 5.3 Discretionary conditions for on-licences

Recommendations included same provisions as off-licences regarding signage around intoxication, no entry to intoxicated persons and licensees and staffs host responsibility. Conditions also recommended were ensuring that safe transport information should be easily seen in an on-licence.

Conditions relating to the serving of high-strength drinks (considered over 6 percent) after certain hours was in the draft LAP but the panel felt that this should be removed as it was too prescriptive. A number of other conditions such as noise, litter control and so on are already covered in other regulations so should be removed from the LAP.

Item 6: Policies relating to club licences

• 6.1 Maximum trading hours for club licences

A regional approach was recommended for all club licences from 9am – 1am. Special dispensations were agreed for RSAs to open at 5am on Anzac Day.

• 6.2 Discretionary conditions for Club Licences

Many conditions for club licences relate to on and off-licence discretionary conditions. Signage regarding intoxication, as requested in submissions, and good host responsibility were emphasised, as well as providing transport information and keeping a register of any incidents.

Item 7: Policies relating to Special Licences

• Maximum trading hours for special licences

This recommendation ensures that the licensing team and DLC consider the location of the special licence. They should also consider the maximum on-licence hours in the area and the risk of the event.

Special licences should only be given hours outside the maximum default if the applicant can prove that they have mitigation strategies in place for safety, host responsibility and so on.

• Discretionary conditions for Special Licences

As recommended, outside normal discretionary conditions, when considering a Special Licence the DLC and ARLA should ensure that at large events there are emergency services onsite. It was generally felt that a number of other conditions such as size/strength of alcohol would be looked at closely by the DLC when considering a special licence however the panel did want to make it clear that queue management should be included as a condition of special licences.

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