Piha Cafe granted liquor licence

Pete Dillon and his wife Pattie - new owners of Piha Cafe. Photo / The Aucklander

The controversial Piha Cafe has been granted a full liquor licence - just in time to serve visitors to to the west coast beach during the Rugby World Cup.

Cafe owner Pete Dillon said approval for a full licence application came after no objections to it were received by the closing date last Monday.

He intended to start serving wine and beer from Saturday until 7pm for six days a week during and after the tournament.

On Friday, the cafe withdrew a separate application to the Rugby World Cup Authority for a fast-track liquor licence during the tournament only.

This would have been heard on Wednesday.

However, advisers to the authority recommended approval with standard cafe style
licence conditions and west Auckland Police and licensing inspectors did not oppose it.

Mr Dillon said that because the authority advisers had already recommended that the
cafe be given a licence, there was no need to continue with a hearing.

Authority advisers discounted five objections to the fast track application, including one
from the Protect Piha Heritage Society which opposed resource consents for the cafe two years ago.