University of Otago students (from right) Anh Hoang and
Kimberley Houliston sign a petition calling for an
alternative to the extension of the liquor ban in central
Dunedin. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Hundreds of University of Otago students are signing a
petition calling for an alternative to the proposed extension
of the central city liquor ban in Dunedin.
In the first two hours of holding the petition yesterday, the
Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) had gathered
more than 600 signatures.
Students could add their names to the petition at an OUSA
marquee set up within the tent city on the museum lawn. The
tents and marquees will remain on the lawn throughout the
week of Orientation.
OUSA president Logan Edgar said the association had developed
ideas for an alternative to the liquor ban extension.
A bottle or glass ban could possibly be imposed in North
Dunedin, which would allow some alcohol to be consumed
without leading to litter and safety problems.
Other ideas included more consultation expressly with
students, and greater student education on alcohol.
Ideally, public debate on the issue would lead to a
compromise of sorts, Mr Edgar said.
"You want to be able to sit with your girlfriend in a park
and have a bottle of wine, or have a barbecue and some
beers."
The Dunedin City Council's planning and environment committee
considered a report this month from liquor licensing and
projects officer Kevin Mechen to extend the central city
liquor ban to permanently include the North Dunedin student
area.
The committee voted to begin public consultation on the
proposal and also consideredreviewing the present liquor
restrictions in the central city to add a requirement for
police to warn people in the first instance, unless it was
impractical to do so.
In his report, Mr Mechen said Dunedin only extended its
24-hour, seven-day central city liquor restriction into North
Dunedin for events that were likely to "lead to excessive
alcohol consumption and subsequent street disorder".
The report recommends the proposed extension go to the public
for submissions from February 25 to March 23 and that a
hearing of the submissions should follow.
The issue of extending the liquor ban has been regularly
raised since 2004, and multiple requests to extend the ban to
cover North Dunedin have been formally put to the council
since 2006.
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