The Dunedin City Council is in the middle of engagement on its recommenced review of its local alcohol policy (Lap) and a range of possible content options have been identified.
At Thursday’s meeting, staff confirmed they received legal advice on the issue of glass beverage bottle impacts.
‘‘In relation to any proposed ban on selling alcohol in glass within an area of, say, a 1km or 1200m of the University clocktower, legal advice informs us it is a high threshold to get across compared to other discretionary conditions.’’
Chris Hart, who owns Liquorland Leith St and Liquorland Meenans in Great King St, yesterday questioned how such a restriction would be workable.
Both his bottle stores were within about 1km of the clocktower and, presuming such a thing went ahead, Mr Hart said it could have a ‘‘massive impact’’, particularly on Meenans.
‘‘It’s one of the ... stupidest things I’ve ever heard from a council body.
‘‘I appreciate that council is trying to do a really, really good job, but this has to be the thickest thing that I’ve heard in a very, very long time.’’
People could walk outside a prohibited area and bring glass back in, Mr Hart said.
Students might buy alcohol from somewhere like Pak’nSave.
Others who lived outside the centre city might also get caught out trying to buy alcohol in glass bottles on their way home.
He suggested the council needed to follow the lead of other local bodies who had successful Laps, or focus on student accommodation as opposed to retailers.
‘‘They’re trying to mitigate something that is a small problem amongst a small minority of people and make it everyone else’s problem.’’
At the meeting, Cr Brent Weatherall said he saw existing alcohol rules being flouted regularly in George St.
Introducing new rules would be more about appearance than impact.
‘‘The behaviours we are trying to address are coming from a smaller subset of generally younger, high-risk drinkers.
‘‘We need to be careful not to respond to bad behaviour by restricting the freedom of the majority who are doing the right thing.’’
He would be happier sticking with the existing rules but with more consistent enforcement — particularly around bad behaviour, breaking of glass and unruly behaviour by those aged under 25, Cr Weatherall said.
Cr John Chambers, the former head of Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department, said alcohol was clearly a problem but he believed great progress had made in the city over the past three decades.
‘‘Certainly, in my working life, I saw the number of accidents related to glass drastically reduced by the measures taken at parties such as the Hyde St party — not having glass there.’’
The number of options for the Lap seemed extensive and he was not convinced many of them were evidence-based.
Some of them might just be ‘‘creative ideas that may or may not work’’, Cr Chambers said.
Councillors approved further stakeholder and public engagement on a range of possible content options to inform the draft Lap, to formally consult upon later in the year.
