Queenstown bar owners lose appeal to open 24 hours

A bid to make Queenstown the tourist resort that never sleeps has failed, but bar owners are not giving up.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a last-ditch legal challenge by bar owners trying to overturn a 4am closing time imposed in the tourist mecca.

Good Group Ltd, representing many licensed premises in the town, wants the right to keep its establishments open 24 hours as was allowed until last year.

The 24-hour licensing was withdrawn by the local council because of concerns about drunken violence and disorder in the town, which boasts more licensed premises per head than anywhere in New Zealand.

The Liquor Licensing Authority supported the council's stance, and the bar owners went to the High Court and Court of Appeal to have it overturned.

Russell Gray, spokesman for the Good Group, said the company would have liked to continue the fight to the Supreme Court, but it appeared the law would not allow for that.

Sticking to 4am closing was a "backward step", he said. Bar owners did not accept that the opening hours related directly to problems on the streets. Rather, it came down to how well the bars were run.

"I think it's a freedom thing that has been denied because there is misinformation on the table."

Bar owners would continue to try to lobby local authorities, he added.

As the fight continues in Queenstown, further north in Timaru police are celebrating the success of earlier closing hours. Figures have shown that since 2007, when the 5am closing time for bars was pulled back to 3am, inner city violence and disorder between 3am and 5am dropped by about two-thirds.

The local police head, Inspector Dave Gaskin, said there was no doubt that the earlier closing times were the reason behind the dramatic fall.