Liquor outlets near local schools face council freeze

A council panel wants district licensing committees to have discretion to ban sales near schools when considering applications for new or renewed off-licences. Photo / Thinkstock

Bottle shops and supermarkets near some Auckland schools may have to stop selling alcohol between 3pm and 4pm each day.

A five-member council panel wants district licensing committees to have discretion to ban sales near primary and secondary schools when considering applications for new or renewed off-licences.

That is among recommendations determined on Friday for a new local alcohol policy to be considered by all Auckland Council members in May, before a 30-day period for any of more than 2600 submitters to lodge appeals with the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.

Other proposals include restricting all off-licence liquor sales to 9am until 9pm each day - compared with 7am to 11pm now - and bringing forward by one hour to 3am the latest closing time for bars and nightclubs other than in central Auckland.

Downtown bars would be allowed to keep trading until 4am, subject to meeting requirements.

The panel has not yet defined the distance which liquor outlets would have to be from schools to escape a one-hour afternoon halt to sales.

But the recommendation is not enough for Mangere's Southern Cross Campus, which has lost a battle to stop a liquor store opening opposite its decile 1 school of about 2000 primary and secondary students. "It really doesn't do anything," board chairman Peter Parussini said.

"I would have thought a key part of the local licensing policy would be to not have liquor stores anywhere near places like schools, regardless of the time of day."

But Mr Parussini said the Mangere community had since been successful in dissuading another business owner from opening a new outlet near another school.

"He valued his other business, and the community had a conversation with him about it, and he was very accommodating."

The panel will also recommend two-year freezes on granting new off-licences in 23 areas, including the central city and most South Auckland town centres, where it considers there are already enough or too many liquor outlets.

Council principal social policy and bylaws adviser Belinda Hansen said the recommendation included a "presumption" against granting new licences after the two years were up, although applicants would be entitled to try to override that.

Maungakiekie councillor Denise Krum was out-voted by the rest of the panel, comprising four councillors and a member of the independent Maori statutory board, in wanting new supermarkets exempted from the freezes.

Closed shop

Places where the Auckland Council panel wants two-year freezes on new liquor licences for bottle shops and supermarkets:

CBD, Wellsford, Henderson, Glen Eden, Avondale, Oranga, Glen Innes, Pt England, Panmure, Mt Wellington, Otahuhu, Mangere, Mangere East, Papatoetoe, Hunters Corner, Otara, Manukau, Wiri, Manurewa, Weymouth, Takanini, Papakura, Pukekohe.