The Queenstown Lakes District Council says the public needs to provide evidence that a ''high level of crime and disorder'' will result if a stricter alcohol ban bylaw is not approved.
The council unanimously agreed to adopt a proposed alcohol ban bylaw for public consultation at a meeting yesterday. It is reviewing the 2009 Liquor in Public Places Bylaw following changes to the Local Government Act 2002 last December.
The bylaw prohibits the possession of alcohol in open containers and consumption of alcohol at specified times in parts of Queenstown, Frankton, Arrowtown, Wanaka and Hawea.
In a report to the QLDC, council regulatory manager Lee Webster said the changes to the Act had increased the ''statutory threshold'' for councils to demonstrate the need for continuing a bylaw, and the council had to be satisfied that a ''high level of crime and disorder'' was likely to arise if the bylaw was not enacted.
A police submission on the review recommended that year-round bans on alcohol in public areas, set at 10pm-8am at present, start two hours earlier at 8pm.
This was to help reduce alcohol-related harm stemming from an increase in people drinking and congregating on the Queenstown waterfront by Marine Pde.
Mr Webster said although Eichardts Private Hotel and the Novotel Hotel had provided anecdotal information that supported the police recommendation, it was ''questionable'' there was sufficient evidence to justify increasing the ban hours.
A police request to extend the areas in Wanaka and Hawea where alcohol was banned was also unlikely to meet the statutory test for the same reason.
Cr Ella Lawton said the change to the Local Government Act had reduced the council's ability to be proactive on alcohol harm, and extending the liquor ban by two hours was ''not a big deal in terms of the benefits we get at the other end''.
Mayor Vanessa van Uden said by keeping the alcohol ban start time at 10pm in the proposed bylaw, the council could ''engender'' the data required from the public consultation process.
Through publicity supporting consultation, the council could tell the public it would need to provide ''clear evidence to justify changing the bylaw''.
A speaker on the topic during the public forum, Reg Anderson, said the council needed to put the interests of the general public above those of people, mostly backpackers, who went to the lakefront to drink.
A business owner operating by Marine Pde, Mr Anderson said anywhere between 50 and 200 people congregated in the area on summer evenings.
That made it ''a great place for backpackers, but not for everyone else''.
Submissions on the bylaw will close at the end of next month, before hearings in November.
