Local Alcohol Policy Review

We are reviewing our Local Alcohol Policy in Waikirikiri Selwyn.

This is something councils are required to do regularly to make sure the rules are right for our district. Our current policy was adopted in April 2017 and is due for a review. 

Our district is changing, and our alcohol rules need to reflect what our communities want for the future.

In August we asked for your feedback around opening times for places that sell alcohol, training requirements and whether you would like to see any limits around where places that sell alcohol can be located or on the number of places that sell alcohol in a town or township area.

• A majority of respondents supported keeping the current opening hours for all licences except off-licence premises
• 62.4% of repsondents supported extending the closing hours of off-licence premises
• Most respondents (54.2%) also supported the introduction of sensitive sites, restricting stand-alone bottle stores from opening close to locations including but not limited to schools, early childhood centers, sport clubs and grounds, maraes, medical centers, hospitals, treatment facilities and churches
• A majority of respondents (75.7%) supported introducing a requirement that all clubs must have rostered duty managers present during trading hours
• A majority of people also supported introducing a requirement that all bar staff and certified managers must complete serve-wise training no less than annually (once a year).
• People were evenly split (50.8% against, 49.2% for) introducing restrictions on the appearance of external facing signage for all premises where alcohol is sold and/or supplied.

What happens next?

We will use the responses we receive here to put together the final policy.

Based on the feedback we received from you in August we are proposing to update the policy to:

• Require Club Licence holders to have a rostered manager present at all times during opening hours
• Require all on-licence staff to complete ServeWise training once a year. This is a free, online training tool for sellers and servers of alcohol covering host responsibility and requirements
• Extend the closing hours for off-licence premises (Supermarkets, wineries, taverns, stand-alone bottle stores, grocery stores, manufacturers and hotels) from 9pm to 10pm
• Introduce sensitive site, which would restrict new off licence premises within 150m of: Health facilities, educational premises, spiritual premises, marae and recreational facilities. This would apply only to applications for new licences, not for renewing existing licences.

The draft LAP also contains policies around:

• Maximum trading hours and various discretionary conditions for on-licences, off-licences, club licences and special licences
• Restrictions on the location of new bottle stores to Town Centre Zones (Rather than in areas zoned Residential. In the District Plan Town Centre Zones (TCZ) are the primary areas for commercial activity, along with residential, recreation, cultural and community activities and civic services.)
• Supervised designation of bottle stores
• Signage, lightning and CCTV provisions
• Specific conditions for on licences and special licences such as: door staff, one-way door restrictions, and provision of transport or information about transport options.
• The District Licencing Commission to be able to consider if it is appropriate to have conditions around signage, when an application is made for an off-licence

Making a submission

Submissions were open until 5pm Tuesday 31 December and have now closed. Hearings will be held in the final two weeks of January, with the exact date(s) to be confirmed depending on the number of those interested in attending.