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Lobbying by the influential and powerful residents of Wellington's Oriental Bay has forced a "priority" police crackdown in the suburb referred to as the Capital's Riviera.
The seaside enclave - which got a $7.5 million makeover in 2002 - is home to Mayor Kerry Prendergast, multimillionaire property developer and new A-league football boss Terry Serepisos, former Retirement Commissioner Colin Blair, and Gareth and Jo Morgan, parents of TradeMe founder Sam Morgan.
The Oriental Bay Residents' Association wants the city's four-year-old booze ban extended into the picturesque bay where apartments cost up to $2 million.
Blair, the association president, said the problems began more than a year ago when noisy, drunken groups began using the beachfront as a "playground".
Over the last few months it had got worse, he said, with boozy beach parties, loud music, fighting, vandalism and car racing most Friday and Saturday nights.
"And when I say nights I mean really late nights and early mornings... It got to the stage where people had really reached the end of their tether."
Some residents had been too scared to leave their homes, Blair said. Others had their sleep so badly affected they resorted to sleeping pills.
Former Eton master and Wellington City Councillor Ian McKinnon said: "We've had reports of some pretty horrific stuff going on - people finding used condoms, broken glass, vomit and other excrement everywhere. It's just not on."
Wellington area commander Inspector Peter Cowan said complaints about late night revelry in Oriental Bay had doubled recently, with 118 reported in February alone.
Most centred around a small, grassed "island" where public toilets attracted people cruising for sex and drugs, and to drink and brawl.
The suburb, about a kilometre from the capital's Courtenay Pl party strip, is currently outside the boundaries of a bylaw which bans drinking in public from 5pm to 8am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
"And that's part of the problem," Inspector Cowan said. "What we're seeing is a displacement of people - they want to come into Wellington to drink but because of the ban they can't do that in the central city so they've moved into Oriental Bay."
Targeting crime in the area was now a "priority". Close circuit television cameras have been installed and police were stepping up plainclothes patrols and traffic surveillance.
Members of the council's on-street response team (Walkwise) and litter control staff were visiting more regularly, and complaints about noise were followed up immediately. The usual procedure is to wait at least 15 minutes. The council also plans to install extra lighting and lay speed humps along several side streets.
Responding to a suggestion that home owners in other suburbs who were similarly affected were unlikely to receive the same level of assistance that the residents of Oriental Bay had, Inspector Cowan said police had considered that. "We do have to be careful about where public pressure comes from, and we don't want it to be seen as a knee-jerk reaction. Oriental Bay was one area we looked at when the liquor ban was first introduced. At the time the crime statistics couldn't justify it, and most of the residents didn't want it. But now the residents have said 'we want it'..."
Blair said the change of heart came after the association received close to 200 signatures supporting the move.
"The mood has definitely changed. The preference of many is to have a ban during the hours of darkness, not just from Thursday through to Sunday. We enjoy having visitors come to the beach, just not at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning."
Wellington City Council is to consult on the planned changes, and the amended bylaw is expected to be in force by late July.
