News Release
Wednesday 24 April 2013

Public Meetings On Draft Local Alcohol Policy Preparation

ROTORUA 24.04.13: Rotorua District Council is holding two public pre-consultation meetings next month to discuss the development of a draft Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) for the district.

The meetings will be held at the council Civic Centre on 10 May at 2pm and 16 May at 6.30pm, and anyone interested is welcome to attend.

RDC Regulatory Services manager Neven Hill said the pre-consultation meetings will give the community an opportunity to have input before the formal special consultation process takes place.

“LAPs come out of recent new legislation which comes into effect at the end of the year. They will give communities significantly more input into local licensing decisions than existing legislation allows. These decisions include the power to limit the number of licences in particular locations or near certain types of facilities, restricting or extending maximum opening hours, and imposing conditions on licences.

“We’ve already had pre-consultation meetings with the local alcohol industry itself, so now it’s the community’s chance to have their say and help craft the draft Local Alcohol Policy so we have a Rotorua policy for Rotorua conditions.

“The meetings on 10 May and 16 May are being held to get residents’ views of what should be addressed in our draft LAP before it is prepared for public consultation with the wider community.”

The draft Local Alcohol Policy is expected to be finalised by the end of August and will then go to the mayor and councillors for consideration before being released for the next consultation phase.

ENDS

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