The new owner of a Bottle-O outlet near the Octagon, in Dunedin, had significantly improved alcohol law compliance but there were still "some difficulties" with an application for a new off-licence there.
Dunedin police alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Ian Paulin made those comments in submissions and discussion at a Dunedin District Licensing Committee hearing on the application yesterday.
The application was on behalf of KSK PVT, trading as Bottle-O, for an off-licence at 72 Princes St, Dunedin.
The hearing ended yesterday and committee chairman Colin Weatherall said a decision was likely to be issued by late next week. Mr Weatherall acknowledged the range of submissions and said the decision would reflect Dunedin’s best interests.
Other committee members were deputy chairman Cr Andrew Noone and Colin Lind. Sgt Paulin said that issuing another off-licence could only reduce, "by more than a minor amount, the amenity and good order of the locality".
He referred to a recent decision involving another liquor outlet in which the committee had "mitigated the risk" of alcohol purchases by issuing a licence with 9.30pm closing hours.
Police submitted that 9.30pm closing should also apply in this case.
Police further believed that the "advertising of special prices and discounts" was "inappropriate" in this central city location and asked for a condition of the licence to prohibit "the placing of such posters and advertising material" outside the Bottle-O outlet.
An analysis of calls to the police for service for alcohol-related incidents in the past 12 months indicated that 515 calls were made to police within a 500m radius of the proposed premises, and 304 were for disorder.
Licensing inspector Martine Cashell-Smith opposed the application, which was for "an extremely high-risk area".
In the central city she had witnessed intoxicated pedestrians being hit by cars, street fights, people vomiting due to intoxication, and liquor ban breaches, she said.
In his own submissions, bottle store owner Gurjeet Singh said the shop was located on the corner of Princes St and Moray Pl, at the southern end of the Octagon.
For Mr Singh, Craig Shearer, of Auckland, said that after Mr Singh bought the store this year, the committee chose to renew the licence until September 30 next year with the hours being 9am to 11pm, seven days a week.
It had later come as "quite a shock" that the reporting agencies had objected to Mr Gurjeet’s application, and it had been an "extremely daunting and expensive experience" for him to appear before the committee yesterday, Mr Shearer said. Mr Singh said he had been operating the store under a temporary authority first granted on April 7 this year, which had been further extended for three months.
