This advice from the Police must be listened to as WCC develops our local Alcohol Policy. The Police not only have the expertise in this area, they are left to deal with the mess after people drink too much.
Yesterday's forum on our policy was very useful, I appreciated many people from the hospitality industry, the Police, hospital and tourism industry giving up their time to answer councillor's questions.
It is interesting to note that the views of the Free Ambulance, Police and doctors were the same around closure times. The hospitality industry disagrees with this advice instead saying that pre-loading is the primary issue.
No magic bullet here. Licencing hours are a big part of the story but so is pricing, advertising and host responsibility.
Nothing good happens after 3am? Factually incorrect and a rather dangerous statement coming from a politician who makes laws.
ReplyDeleteMyself and hundreds of others for example danced to internationally famous DJ Derrick May at Sandwiches when he played last month. Went on until 5-6am.
There was no trouble of course, no violence, no throwing up in the toilets. There was hardly any drinking even. People came to dance.
According to you and the police, this is naughty behaviour which needs to be stamped out.
Pretty laughable that this kind of thing is being discouraged by the council in NZ's "Events capital".
Thanks for the comment, the quote comes from the Police, my point simply is that they have to be listened to as they are on the frontline of anti-social behaviour and have to pick up the pieces.
ReplyDeleteThere's absolutely no problem with anyone dancing until 5-6 in the morning and even later if you want to. You would not only be able to dance until 5-6am, you could probably drink until 5am on the plan that we have just put out for consultation (and supported by myself) if the bar that you went to met best practice standardds.
I haven't said anything at all about stamping out the kind of experience that you describe. In fact, I have been a very strong critic of those who have banned drinking in public places seeing that people have the right and freedom to do such an act. I am also strongly supportive of any activity late at night that doesn't involve heavy consumption of alcohol.
I do however agree with the Police in that alchol contributes to a lot of harm (backed up strongly by the Palmer report). $5.3b a year in terms of health and social costs is a serious problem.
Wellington will still be the Events Capital, just until 5am now rather than 6am as it is for some bars.