A report to councillors said a revised replacement of the Dunedin City Council’s local alcohol policy (Lap) could come into force between August and October next year.
It would not be possible to complete a comprehensive pre-consultation and meaningful consultation process before a new council was elected, it said.
Consideration of a draft replacement began in late November last year.
The council is required to consult with police, the medical officer of health and alcohol licensing inspectors — referred to together as the tri-agencies — before a draft Lap gets released for public consultation.
In a memorandum from March, then-hearings committee chairman Cr Jim O’Malley said the tri-agencies had raised concerns about the quality and level of pre-consultation that went into the development of the public consultation document.
Safe and Well Otepoti, formerly known as the Dunedin Alcohol Harm Reduction Group, was also concerned about the timeframes to supply information and a lack of involvement in the development of the consultation document.
The tri-agencies were invited back and asked by the committee if the information they gave the council was used in a meaningful manner in the construction of the document — all of whom replied in the negative, Cr O’Malley said.
"The committee concluded that the tri-agencies had not been sufficiently engaged with during the development of the Lap."
The consultation document was also "over 90% identical to and unchanged in its focus from the original Lap six years earlier".
"The focus remains on the North Dunedin area with the rest of the city mentioned but not in substantive manner.
"The lack of difference between the Lap consultation document and the current Lap is consistent with the statements of the tri-agencies that the DCC did not use substantial components of their submissions in the construction of the consultation document."
The committee agreed the "best course of action is to reset the process back to the start" and instruct the council to ensure it fully met every expectation of the special consultative process when developing a revised Lap consultation document, Cr O’Malley said.
The committee resolved in February to report back to the full council recommending a revised consultation document be prepared and consulted on.
It also recommended the tri-agencies and other affected parties were "actively engaged throughout the process including the preparation of the revised consultation document".
The report by staff said although the pre-consultation with the tri-agencies and Safe and Well Otepoti involved a meeting and correspondence between the parties, it was done "in a compressed timeframe and would have benefited from more detailed and meaningful consultation".
Staff supported the committee’s recommendations.
"The Lap is an important document, and the process needs to be thorough, and consultation needs to be meaningful."
The committee’s recommendations will be considered at a council meeting today.
