Local alcohol policy for Hastings and Napier adopted

The Hastings and Napier Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) has been adopted by both Hastings District and Napier City councils following negotiations and agreement over appeals about proposed alcohol sale hours.

In September last year, supermarket companies Foodstuffs North Island and Progressive Enterprises (now Woolworths New Zealand) appealed the councils’ decision to reduce the hours that off-licences could sell alcohol.

Following negotiations, changes were agreed, resulting in supermarket and grocery trading hours of 7am to 10pm and all other off licences trading hours from 9am to 10pm.

Reaching a negotiated settlement avoided an Alcohol Regulatory Licensing Authority (ARLA) hearing, which could be expensive and lengthy.

The draft joint Hastings and Napier LAP was developed after The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 was brought in, allowing councils to develop a LAP to control where and when alcohol could be sold.

Hastings and Napier councils decided to prepare one LAP for both areas, to avoid confusion for both outlet operators and the public, and provide consistency across the region.

The draft LAP was put together over eight months, after which the draft went out for public consultation. Public hearings held in April 2014 attracted 311 submissions.

In April 2016, the councils adopted the provisional LAP and the appeals were received in 2017.

Apart from the negotiations over the one section on trading hours, the rest of the LAP – a policy designed to minimise alcohol harm, passed through the process unchanged.

Other changes (not appealed) in the LAP include density controls, meaning no further off-licences for bottle stores in certain areas of Hastings and Napier, including Flaxmere, Camberley and Maraenui. 

The LAP also enables the councils’ District Licensing Committee to add discretionary conditions to licence types such as the installation of CCTV, management requirements such as specifying the number of security or door staff a bar must have, and limiting the number and size of drinks able to be sold at specified times. 

The LAP will come into force on August 21, 2019 with trading hours coming into force on November 21, 2019.

The adopted policy can be viewed here www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/assets/Document-Library/Policies/Liquor-Licensing-Policy/Local-Alcohol-Policy.pdf

26 July 2019

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