Fears grow over closing times

A leading Tauranga bar and brewery owner has warned that the city's struggling downtown entertainment area will die if 3am closing is allowed across the whole of the Western Bay.

Glen Meikle, whose interests include Brewers Bar in Newton St, highlighted the perils of putting Mount Maunganui downtown on to an equal footing with The Strand's 3am closing.

He urged yesterday's combined meeting of the Tauranga and Western Bay councils to stick with the 1am closing at the Mount.

The two councils have taken a joint approach to controlling licensed premises, with the most contentious element of the proposed Local Alcohol Policy being to allow a maximum 3am closing for all hotels and bars in the Western Bay - Tauranga's downtown was the only area with 3am licences.

Mr Meikle's submission stressed the tough trading conditions along The Strand.

He said that he had basically walked away from his downtown nightclubs to concentrate on brewing and running events. He still held the leases over his two former nightclubs in Harington St but had assigned the leases over to new operators so that he no longer paid the rent.

Mr Meikle said that five years ago he employed 60 staff and he now employed 20. During that time the average spend by nightclub patrons had dropped from $20 to $5 per head, and he had been surviving on the door charge.

"They come to socialise and meet people and have fun - often they don't drink," he said of the common practice of young people pre-loading at home before they came to town.

Mr Meikle said bars at Mount Maunganui were doing a lot better than the CBD over the summer, even though they shut at 1am. If everyone was able close at 3am, a lot of people would want to set up business at the Mount.

"If everyone had 3am the CBD would die completely ... that would be the end of town."

Tauranga and Mount licensee Matt Hayward said putting closing hours back to 1am across the city would push drinking into the suburbs because people would want to party on, making it harder to police.

"It would make young people more determined to do their own thing and it would not be in a controlled environment."

Mr Hayward said there was no data to back up the suggestion that changing drinking hours would change social behaviour. He said there was no great desire for 3am closing at the Mount, just the ability to close at 3am from Boxing Day to January 3 or 4.