After being hauled before Dunedin’s district licensing committee for a second time last year, The Bog Irish Bar’s liquor licence was ultimately renewed until late October.
The pub’s bid to renew its on-licence was initially opposed by the city’s chief licensing inspector, who questioned the owners’ suitability over two incidents within their first year of trade.
Committee secretary Kevin Mechen said they had carefully considered all the evidence in making their decision.
"It is apparent that perhaps the applicants were not aware that they were purchasing a premises that attracts a high volume of university students.
"This has led to some issues with compliance in their first year of trade."
The committee noted the willingness of the applicant to engage with the agencies and the steps they had taken to date to improve the running of the premises and better serve the community in which they operated.
It decided to renew the licence until October 23, a period the committee thought was appropriate to allow the applicant more time to embed the systems and processes they now had in place.
The agencies also indicated a willingness to be available to offer advice as required, Mr Mechen said.
The pub had applied for licensed hours of 8am-3am Monday to Sunday, but the committee accepted an offer of an earlier closing time of 2am.
In April last year, an inspector discovered two of the pub’s three ground-floor fire exits were "pad-bolted and locked" while the pub was open for business.
Repeated requests to unlock the exits were ignored which culminated in an application by Fire and Emergency New Zealand to suspend its licence.
That application was ultimately withdrawn and the pub was allowed to continue trading.
But in September, the pub was hit with a warning letter from police after a number of patrons at a drunken 21st birthday gathering yelled abuse at officers from its upstairs bar area.
The sole bartender upstairs did not initially engage with police "and appeared to have no idea as to the levels of intoxication in the venue", the letter said.
"Furthermore, the seats, tables and floor in the venue were a mess with leftover food scraps."
The Bog Irish Bar co-owner Karandeep Singh did not respond to a request for comment before deadline yesterday.
At last month’s hearing, he said they had followed "a very strict protocol" since the September incident.
He was confident the pub was now fully compliant and staff were thoroughly trained.
"We want to establish ourselves as a really safe place, a safe drinking place that follows all the rules.
"We have been very strict."
Police also told the committee the warning they issued had no expiry and "any subsequent issues may be looked at for further prosecution".
