Whanganui’s local alcohol policy is up for its six-yearly review. After hearing input from the community via a survey in late 2024, we’re proposing a few changes to the policy.
The purpose of a local alcohol policy
Alcohol-related harm is a deep and complex topic, costing New Zealand an estimated $9.1 billion every year according to the Public Health Communication Centre Aotearoa, and contributes to violence, unsafe driving, littering, harassment, poor health outcomes, poverty, lost productivity and ACC claims.
The local alcohol policy helps manage and minimise alcohol-related harm across the district by setting rules that have to be followed, like sales hours and a one-way door policy for clubs, bars and pubs. It also includes rules that have to be considered by the District Licensing Committee, like a licence cap or conditions that can be applied to specific venues to help them manage risks.
Whanganui District Council has had its Local Alcohol Policy in place since 2019, and under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 we are required to review it every six years. The council has reached out to health organisations, Police, ACC, Hato Hone St John, community groups and stakeholders, the alcohol industry and local residents to put together a draft policy, and we are now seeking your feedback on our proposals.
Read on for a summary of the current policy and the proposed changes.
A range of relevant documents are linked to the right:
- our Statement of Proposal (for more detail on the considerations that have gone into our proposals)
- the draft Local Alcohol Policy 2025
- a research report on alcohol harm in Whanganui, drafted for this review, and
- a report on the results of the survey we ran in late 2024.
The current policy
As well as information on alcohol-related harm, the current Local Alcohol Policy 2019 has five substantive clauses:
A sensitive site is any location that is likely to be regularly visited by people who are particularly vulnerable to alcohol-related harm, such as children and recovering addicts. The policy defines a sensitive site as any early childhood centre, primary or secondary school, Marae, place of worship, alcohol treatment centre or children’s park or playground.
To protect these vulnerable people, no licensed venue can open within 100m of any of the places listed above. There are exceptions for:
- when a venue is in place first and a sensitive site opens within 100m
- when a venue is already within 100m of a particular sensitive site and wants to relocate to a new place that is also within 100m of that same sensitive site
- grocers and supermarkets.
This is a rule that limited the number of off-licences in the Whanganui district to 14, not including supermarkets and grocery stores. As they are entitled to do under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, the District Licensing Committee has chosen not to make use of this clause, continuing to grant off-licences above the cap.
The cap also has to be reviewed every year in order to ensure it is not “inconsistent with development objectives and potential in the Whanganui district”.
A one-way door is a rule that lets a venue stay open serving alcohol to people who are onsite but new customers are not allowed through the door. This helps limit incidents that arise when the venue closes and all the customers have to leave at once, as it encourages them to trickle out over time with no new customers coming in.
The Local Alcohol Policy 2019 requires a one-way door for any on-licence open after midnight for one hour prior to closing – so currently if an on-licence can stay open until 1.00am they need a one-way door from midnight, and if it is open until 2.00am they need a one-way door from 1.00am.
The Local Alcohol Policy 2019 sets the hours for selling alcohol:
On-licences
Tavern, hotel, bar, pub or nightclub:
- Can start selling alcohol no earlier than 8.00am
- Have to stop selling alcohol by 2.00am the next day.
Restaurants:
- Can start selling alcohol by no earlier than 8.00am
- Have to stop selling alcohol by midnight.
Off-licences
Supermarket, grocery store, or bottle store:
- Can start selling alcohol no earlier than 7.00am
- Have to stop selling alcohol by 10pm.
Hotel, bar, tavern, winery:
- Can start selling alcohol no earlier than 7.00am
- Have to stop selling alcohol by 9:30pm.
Club licences
- Can start selling alcohol no earlier than 8.00am
- Have to stop selling alcohol by midnight.
Special licences
- Will not exceed the maximum hours under the Act.
These are conditions that the District Licensing Committee can choose to apply to specific licences if they are concerned about particular risks or would like them to be managed in more specific ways. The District Licensing Committee is free to introduce other conditions if they choose, but the Local Alcohol Policy 2019 gives a list of some they can consider as a starting point. These are:
|
Licence type and Subtype
|
Discretionary conditions
|
|
On-licence
|
All on-licences
|
- One-way door after a specific hour;
- More restrictive hours based on neighbouring land use;
- Separate points of sale required for other licence types;
- Register of significant alcohol-related incidents required to be maintained.
|
|
Tavern and hotel licences
|
- Require a management plan for outdoor areas;
- Litter must be removed from outside the premises;
- A dedicated staff member available to manage a queue if one forms;
- Require a noise management plan.
|
|
Off-licence
|
Bottle stores
|
- Supervised designation imposed.
|
|
All off-licences
|
- At least 50 percent of storefront glazing to be transparent
- Alcohol-related advertisements, signage and displays to be consistent with Crime Prevention Through Urban Design principles;
- Register of significant alcohol-related incidents required to be maintained;
- Retail packaging contain less than 445ml units of beer, cider or RTDs not to be broken down.
|
|
Club licence
|
- A certified manager required to be on duty where patronage exceeds 100 people;
- More restrictive hours based on neighbouring land use;
- Set maximum number of patrons permitted on-site;
- Management plan required for outdoor areas;
- Register of significant alcohol-related incidents required to be maintained;
- Noise management plan required.
|
|
Special licence
|
- Require an Event Alcohol Risk Management Plan;
- Restrict number of drinks per patron and setting of final drinks;
- Restrict or prohibit certain drinking vessels;
- Management plan required for outdoor areas;
- Require a noise management plan;
- Require area designated for alcohol sales to be clearly defined and cordoned off.
|
What’s proposed to change – the draft policy
The proposed Local Alcohol Policy 2025 proposes that some clauses are changed, some are modified, and some are removed.
The substantive changes being proposed are listed here:
This is a valuable and important tool in the policy, but it does not recognise harm from being more than 100m away from a sensitive site. The Proposed Local Alcohol Policy 2025 retains this restriction but also recognises the increased risk in being between 100m and 250m of sensitive sites, as well as between 250m and 500m.
The exemption for venues that have a sensitive site open within 100m of them is retained but also recognising the increased risk that is associated with that.
The exemption for venues that want to relocate has been removed, as the council considers relocation to be a crucial opportunity for licences to move out of the highest-risk radius.
The exemption for supermarkets and grocery stores is proposed to be removed as a significant volume of alcohol travels through these venues, and there is insufficient evidence showing that this exemption will have any positive impact on alcohol-related harm.
This has received criticism from the community for the licences that the District Licensing Committee has granted above 14, and from the District Licensing Committee for not being nuanced enough. As a result, the council is proposing to replace the off-licence cap with a risk framework that applies across all licence types. Any application for a new or renewed licence in the Whanganui district will need to go through a risk assessment, with the expectation that high-risk licences will not be granted.
The risk framework starts with the assessment that is already required under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Fees) Regulations 2013, which considers any enforcement actions taken against the venue in the last 18 months, and the type of licence and venue. We are proposing to add a number of other considerations reflecting our greater understanding of the elements that contribute to risk since the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Fees) Regulations 2013 were put in place. These are:
- Rating under the NZ Deprivation Index 2023 – because of evidence that alcohol harm is exacerbated by high deprivation, the number of alcohol-related police callouts in Whanganui to high-deprivation areas, and the relatively higher percentage of Whanganui residents living in high deprivation compared to the national average, venues wanting to open or remain open in high-deprivation areas will be given a higher risk rating.
- Proximity to other venues – because of evidence showing that increasing numbers of licensed venues close together increases the likelihood and severity of alcohol-related harm, venues wanting to open or remain open in close proximity to a number of other venues that serve alcohol will be given a higher risk rating.
- Proximity to sensitive sites – as well as prohibiting licences from being granted within 100m of existing sensitive sites (early childhood centres, schools, Marae, places of worship, alcohol treatment centres and children’s parks and playgrounds), licences that want to open further than 100m away but within 500m will be given a higher risk rating.
- Zoning under the district plan – to mitigate licensed venues from migrating out into residential suburbs where the harm is more disruptive and harder to manage, venues wanting to open or remain open in residential or neighbourhood commercial zones will be given a higher risk rating than venues wanting to open or remain open in the CBD or surrounding commercial area.
- Remote sales – currently there are extremely limited controls on the sale of alcohol online, with no-contact delivery allowing customers to buy alcohol which is delivered directly to their home, and no checks in place to ensure they aren’t selling to intoxicated people or underage people. As a result, the council is proposing that venues who want to sell remotely but cannot demonstrate what steps they’re taking to reduce this risk should not be granted a licence. Venues who can demonstrate that they are taking steps to manage the risk will have their risk rating slightly increased to reflect the fact that even thorough online checks are still significantly less secure than in-person sales.
Because they pose significantly higher risk of harm, the council is proposing to retain a cap on bottle stores specifically, preventing any new licensed bottle stores from opening in the district unless another closes first.
Because the cap itself is being removed, and because of the cost of running a yearly review, the council is also proposing to remove the review requirement.
Some common concerns that arose through the survey that we ran late last year were how early many licensed venues were allowed to start selling alcohol, as well as the impact of alcohol on children, young people and families. A number of suggestions were made to where the maximum sale hours should be, from people suggesting no changes to those that thought alcohol should not be available before midday.
The council is proposing to push the maximum sale hours for all licence types back to school hours, meaning no alcohol would be able to be sold within the district prior to 9.00am unless they have a special licence. This will limit the visible sale and consumption of alcohol to children before school, which will likely have the strongest impact on children with parents who are struggling with alcohol addiction.
There is evidence that 80 percent of alcohol in New Zealand comes through off-licences, supported by the results of the survey from last year, and almost half of police callouts for alcohol happen between 9.00pm and 3.00am – closing hours for the latest on-licences. The council is therefore proposing to draw off-licence alcohol sales back to 9.00pm – meaning that bottle stores, supermarkets, grocery stores and other venues selling alcohol for consumption off-premises cannot sell alcohol outside of 9.00am-9.00pm.
The one-way door policy (a rule that allows a venue to continue selling alcohol to anybody who is already on the premises but not let any new customers in) is less effective than it could be because it is still possible to move between venues that are open until 1.00am and 2.00am, limiting its impact. As a result, and following a specific request from Whanganui Police, the council is proposing to extend the one-way door rule to midnight across all venues – regardless of when they close, no new customers are allowed to enter after midnight.
In addition to the list provided above, the council is proposing to introduce two new discretionary conditions that the District Licensing Committee can make use of if they choose. These are:
- Preventing an off-licence from selling single-unit alcohol for less than $6 – this is to increase the cost of the cheapest and most accessible forms of alcohol, as these are the types that those suffering the most from addiction issues gravitate towards.
- Preventing venues from offering “buy-now-pay-later” schemes such as Afterpay for alcohol – this poses a critical financial risk to those experiencing alcohol-related harm.
Have your say
Online form
Printable hard-copy form(PDF, 225KB)
Consultation closes at midnight on Wednesday, 30 April 2025.
Engagement events will be scheduled during the month of April. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and this page for updates.