Alcohol policy attempts to reduce harm in CBD

Increasing incidents of late-night, booze- fuelled violence have prompted Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith to take a firmer line in favour of a 2am curfew for city bars.

After earlier supporting continued 3am closing for on-licensed premises, Smith told yesterday’s city council meeting he had changed his mind.

One of the reasons was a Safe City Host report about a 19-year-old man being left with serious head injuries after taking a king hit in Main St in the early hours of March 27.

Smith said he really felt for the family of the young man, who had been flown to Wellington Hospital with severe injuries, and had been put on life support.

Smith said the hosts’ latest report had been quite damning of the level of violence and disorder around Palmerston North’s late-night bars.

He was also convinced a stronger stance on closing times was needed after the protests against rising incidents of alcoholfuelled violence and sexual harm in Wellington. ‘‘That council has not addressed it, and has let the on-licences control that town.

‘‘I think we need to do something.’’ Smith explained his change of heart, after initially taking the view that earlier closing would turn a city with a nightlife into a ghost town, as councillors considered adoption of their draft local alcohol policy.

When it was debated by the community development committee last month, councillors asked for extra controls to be added to stop bottle stores setting up next to sensitive sites.

That would have triggered the need for a fourth round of public consultation on a policy already seven years in the making, and the majority of councillors who had supported the change earlier decided that would be a bad idea after all.

Committee chairwoman Lorna Johnson said withdrawing that proposed additional control from the draft was a case of ‘‘pragmatism over idealism’’.

Deputy mayor Aleisha Rutherford said the current draft, which included an earlier 9pm closing time for off-licences in an attempt to deal with the problem of preloading, was ‘‘moderate’’.

But at least the council would have a chance to have a ‘‘live’’ policy that could be revised later, she said. ‘‘We can’t do any of it if we don’t have a policy.’’

Cr Lew Findlay said the policy might be ‘‘toothless, or not much use at all’’, but he would support it because it was at least a starting point.

The final version of the policy was expected to be presented to the council at the end of the month.

It would then be publicly notified, and those who had made submissions in the most recent round of consultation would have a right of appeal to the Alcohol Regulatory Licensing Authority.

A move by Cr Rachel Bowen to delay adopting the policy in the hopes that possible law changes would restrict appeal rights was not supported. She was concerned the policy would almost certainly attract appeals, which would mean a twoyear delay before a likely watered-down version was finally able to take effect.

‘‘I think we need to do something.’’

Mayor Grant Smith