Tauranga City Council is reviewing the bylaw that governs the consumption of alcohol in public places, including the alcohol-free areas in Tauranga.

Consultation on the draft Alcohol Control Bylaw 2018 closes in one week's time – at 5pm on Wednesday, 18 July.

Alcohol bans are a tool to help reduce alcohol-related disorder and crime.

'The current bylaw will expire in December and the legislation it is set under has changed, so we're reviewing our bylaw now,” says a council spokesperson.

Alcohol-free areas
The bylaw sets out permanent alcohol-free areas (valid year-round) and alcohol-free areas valid for the New Year period from 26 December to 6 January each year. Most bans apply 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for a few areas in Papamoa where they apply from 9pm to 7am, seven days a week.
The bylaw also allows council to implement temporary alcohol bans for specific time periods or events.
To set alcohol-free areas, we must have evidence of alcohol-related crime and disorder in the area.

To review the bylaw, we have collected evidence from legacy files, customer complaints, CCTV incident logs (where available), community feedback and data from the New Zealand Police.
'Using this evidence we have worked with the Police to assess the existing alcohol-free areas and the need for any new areas. We're proposing to retain all but two current alcohol-free areas, and to extend some others.”

Proposed changes in a nutshell

To remove the alcohol-free areas at Fourth Avenue and Gordon Spratt Reserve as there is no historical or recent evidence of alcohol-related crime or disorder happening at these sites.

To extend the permanent Tauranga city centre alcohol-free area to include the streets west of Cameron Road (all of Hamilton Street and Elizabeth Street and the streets in between); based on police data and feedback from the community.

To extend the permanent alcohol-free area times along Domain Road and Gravatt Road from 9pm-7am to 24 hours, seven days a week; as supported by Police data.

To extend the New Year period alcohol-free areas at Mount Maunganui, south to Hull Road and Tweed Street.

This extension has been implemented as a temporary ban over the past two years, to enable Police to limit alcohol harm and manage public disorder during the holiday period. Extending it in the bylaw will mean this will apply automatically every year.

To make all the New Year period alcohol-free areas at Papamoa apply 24 hours, seven days a week.

The current bylaw sets a 9pm-7am alcohol ban for all beaches, reserves and public places on the seaward side of Papamoa Beach Road and parts of Domain Road and Gravatt Road.

A section of this total area becomes a 24-hour ban during the New Year period. Making all areas follow a 24-hour ban will simplify the rules and help reduce alcohol-related crime and disorder over the holiday period.

Reviewed maps are available in the draft bylaw.

'We're also proposing to remove the vehicle-free zones from the bylaw. These zones can be addressed through the Local Government Act 1974 and the Traffic and Parking Bylaw 2013, so there is no need to include them in this bylaw.

'We have renamed the draft bylaw accordingly.”

Have your say
'We‘re asking the community to let us know if we've got this right – if they support the changes or not, and if there are any other changes they want us to consider.”

Consultation is open until 5pm on Wednesday, 18 July 2018 at www.tauranga.govt.nz/alcoholbylaw - head there to access the draft bylaw and proposed maps, and make a submission online.

Paper copies are also available at our customer service centre at 91 Willow Street and in our libraries.
This is a formal consultation, says council.

'We will use the community's feedback to propose a final Alcohol Control Bylaw 2018 for adoption by Council by the end of this year.”