Round-clock bars questioned

By RENEE KIRIONA

The head of the Alcohol Advisory Council has questioned moves to allow round-the-clock bar opening in central Auckland.

The Auckland City Council has recommended in its draft alcohol strategy that the central business district's 593 licensed venues be allowed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But Alac chief Mike MacAvoy believes doing that will only worsen alcohol-related problems such as fighting in the street, drink driving and disorderly behaviour.

"If the 24/7 recommendation goes through it will increase the availability of alcohol and when that happens there's likely to be more intoxicated people on the street causing havoc," Dr MacAvoy said.

"The council wants to make its city 'vibrant and dynamic' but I doubt whether this will actually do that."

Just over half the 544 bars and clubs operate 24 hours a day. Even if the recommendation were adopted, said the council, it would make hardly any difference.

Noelene Raffills, chairwoman of the council's law and order committee, defended the strategy, saying it actually aimed to reduce alcohol-related problems.

"If the strategy goes through and all the licensed venues take the 24/7 recommendation on board, we don't see anything changing because the majority of them are open all the time anyway.

"If he [Dr MacAvoy] and others think the 24/7 part of the strategy will make things worse then they need to tell us. That's why we called for public comment," she said.

Since the Sale Of Liquor Act 1989 came into effect, the number of liquor licences has ballooned. In Auckland city, the number has almost risen from 1100 to 2028. In the CBD, the figure increased by about 10 per cent each year.

Dr MacAvoy said international and national research had proved that increased alcohol availability resulted in more social problems.

New Zealand research suggests that 63,000 men a year get into fights while they are drunk; that 11 per cent of women have been sexually harassed by someone who was drinking alcohol; and that alcohol contributes to 23 per cent of all serious falls by people aged 15 to 29.

Despite the link between the availability of alcohol and crime, the council has the support of the Auckland City police commander, Gavin Jones.

"When the clubs used to close at a certain time our staff had to deal with huge numbers of drunk and disorderly people all at once.

"If the venues become 24/7 then we can expect to see them come out in lesser numbers, making it more manageable for us."

Questions and answers

Noelene Raffills, chairwoman of the Auckland City Council's law and order committee, answers questions on the strategy.

Your new alcohol policy would allow bars to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. How would that change the present law, which allows many bars to open those hours already?

At present, premises can apply for a 24/7 liquor licence in the CBD. There are a number of venues which currently have a 24/7 licence. The draft strategy is proposing that if premises do not respect this privilege, they will be made to revert to more restrictive hours, which will be 1am [closure] for restaurants and 3am for bars and taverns.

How will the extra crowds and noise affect the growing number of people living in inner-city apartments?

The fallback clause in the draft strategy has been included to mitigate the effects of noise and crowd behaviour issues associated with licensed premises being in close proximity to residential premises. This means that if licensed premises do not take steps to mitigate noise issues, or take notice of complaints, then the council can make their licensed hours more restrictive.

Doesn't this clash with your policy of introducing no-drinking areas around the city?

The draft alcohol strategy is a broad strategy covering alcohol issues in general, with the aim of reducing alcohol-related harm. The strategy includes such things as proposed hours of operation for licensed premises. Specific tools or initiatives, such as alcohol accords and liquor bans, underpin and give effect to the strategy.

Can you outline the present no-drinking areas and the proposals for new ones? When will decisions be made on these?

Currently, there is a liquor ban operative in the central business district (CBD), which prohibits alcohol consumption in public places on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays between the hours of 9pm and 6am. The council has just concluded a special consultative procedure on nine proposed alcohol ban areas and an extension to the CBD ban. A decision will be made by the council next month on whether to extend the CBD liquor ban and introduce other bans in the business and shopping areas of Otahuhu, Glen Innes, Newmarket, Blockhouse Bay, Onehunga, Panmure, Avondale, Mission Bay reserve and Parnell.