City changes up for approval

Merepeka Raukawa-Tait

Tough new alcohol rules and relaxed footpath trading restrictions are among the measures expected to be approved when the Rotorua Lakes Council meets today.

The council also plans to officially adopt its 2015-2025 Long-Term Plan, after a delay in the auditing process meant the plan could only be provisionally approved last month.

Under the council's proposed Local Alcohol Policy, pubs and bars in Rotorua would be subject to controlled opening hours and a one-way door policy that would mean inner city bars could not accept new customers from an hour before closing time.

There would also be a ban on single-serve sales of RTDs from shops and stricter rules around the granting of new off-licence applications.

Earlier this month, councillor Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said the policy aimed to tackle the potentially harmful effects of drinking.

Also expected to be approved is an amendment to the council's footpath trading policy that would remove the prospect of charges for businesses trading outside in the CBD.

Although never actually enforced, charges of up to $560 per square metre of outside space had been possible under the policy.

Both the alcohol and footpath trading measures have already received almost universal endorsement at a Strategy, Policy and Finance committee , and their safe passage through full council looks a formality.

Today's meeting also marks the end of a three-month undertaking to agree on the council's 2015-2025 Long-term Plan - a process that has not been without controversy.

A consultation document released in April that included average farming rates rises of 19 per cent provoked uproar from members of the district's rural community.

"It's milking a cash cow that doesn't have any cash," one farmer said at the time.

In response to these concerns, councillors resolved to include in the plan a rates remission for rural properties.

The council has also received criticism for other elements of the plan, including spending projects, a new waste strategy, and the demolition of Community House.

But now the auditors appear to have given it a clean bill of health, the plan for the next decade of Rotorua's local governance looks set to be adopted.