City Council & The Local Alcohol Policy

What is the Local Alcohol Policy ?

A local alcohol policy is a set of decisions made by a council in consultation with its community about the sale and supply of alcohol in its area. You can read more detail about it here :

What Is An LAP

In 2013, the Christchurch City Council drafted a local alcohol policy. It was just madness. You can read it here.

Old Crazy Draft LAP

At that time, we got busy with Save Christchurch Night Life. Check out the page. https://www.facebook.com/chchlate/

There were a lot of groups that got active to oppose the council. We hit the streets, gathered 5000 submissions from punters out and about and delivered that to the council, speaking to the committee on behalf of those we gathered submissions for.

Upshot was, that the council did not manage to get it through in its original form - thank goodness.

Sadly, now, the council is looking at revisiting the LAP. Changes to the act now mean that it will be easier for councils to railroad a policy through. Check out their media release:

Council Media Release 2024

Upshot is that Recent changes to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 have simplified the process for councils developing their own Local Alcohol Policy (LAP), and for communities to participate in alcohol licensing decisions in their district.

Any council can develop its own LAP, in consultation with the local community, to influence factors such as the number, location, and opening hours of licenced premises. Christchurch City Council paused its previous efforts to implement a LAP in 2017 after a four-year process involving appeals and a judicial review.

On Wednesday 5 June, councillors will decide whether to develop a new LAP with the wider community, following the 2023 amendments and recent case law made in the Supreme Court. Read the report. 

The outcome of the June 5th meeting was that councillors have voted for Christchurch City Council to begin developing a new Local Alcohol Policy (LAP), which can outline rules like the number, location, and opening hours of licenced premises across the whole city. 

Deputy Mayor Pauline Cotter says the ultimate goal of any good LAP is to reflect the values of the wider community. 

Watch this space.

Will the council develop a policy that supports a vibrant Christchurch night life?

Will the council develop policy that further decimates night time social culture?

We will keep up to date on this and continue to post about it and take action to gather submissions when the time come.