Ashburton booze rules described as ‘fair and firm’ amid calls for change
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Health experts are calling on councils to set tougher restrictions on alcohol sales to reduce potential harm, including cutting the hours that booze can be sold.
But Ashburton District’s recently updated restrictions are “fair and firm”, the council says.
Ashburton's bars, restaurants and taverns can sell alcohol until 2am, while supermarkets and bottle stores can sell booze until 9.30pm.
Health Coalition Aotearoa alcohol expert panel co-chairperson Steve Randerson has called for local leaders to curb the availability of alcohol.
Currently, the combined opening hours of bars, bottle stores and supermarkets allow people to buy alcohol 21 hours a day in some regions.
“If you can reduce the hours, you can then reduce the harm,” Randerson said.
The Ashburton District Council reviewed its local alcohol policy last year, and won’t review it again until 2029.
Compliance and development group manager Ian Hyde said the council went through a robust process to ensure the restrictions were strong enough and met community expectations.
“Given the high level of engagement from the community during consultation in 2023 that fed into the development of the policy, we believe it is fair and firm in addressing local alcohol matters.”
The consultation received 42 submissions and seven submitters spoke at the public hearing in August last year.
The council amended the policy, aligning the cut-off time for licensed footpath areas with the one-way door restriction. A further 32 submissions were received, with three submitters speaking at a hearing in November.
The policy was adopted in December and the new trading hours and the district-wide 1am one-way door restriction came into effect on March 14.
Randerson commended the Ashburton council for having limits shorter than the national trading hours in its policy.
“There is room to do more but it does need to come down to local circumstances.
“It’s important that their policies are consulted upon and reflect what the community is witnessing and calling for.”
Hyde said there are 117 licensed premises in the Ashburton District, and of those, there are 22 in the Ashburton CBD.
The policy sets specific maximum hours of operation for premises.
Taverns, including hotel bars, can sell and supply alcohol from 7am until 2am, but the footpath areas close at 1am, with restaurants and cafes trading hours capped at 1am.
Off-licensed premises, bottle stores and supermarkets, have a cut-off time of 9.30pm.
The policy also states that the District Licensing Committee has the discretion to set more restrictive maximum trading hours than prescribed in the LAP.
The council also adopted an updated alcohol control bylaw last year, which extended the liquor ban areas in Ashburton and Methven.
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Ashburton council doubles down on resealing roads
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Almost double the amount of road resealing will now take place in Mid Canterbury this summer – although the council isn't sure if it's possible.
Councillors voted to spend $2.46 million of ratepayer money on additional road seals after failing to get the funding from NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.
The council isn't sure if it’s possible to achieve more than 100km of road resealing - double the previous financial year. If it doesn't reach the target, the council may have to revisit the decision.
The difference between the council’s long-term plan budget and NZTA funding for 2024-27 is $15m.
That funding gap meant the council had $2.46m of ratepayer money unmatched by NZTA and needed to decide where to allocate that money.
Road manager Mark Chamberlain suggested a list of priority projects, spreading some money across areas that were underfunded by NZTA to the council last week.
Mayor Neil Brown thought differently.
He suggested putting the full $2.46m into reseals to “get back our reseals to where they should be”.
Complaints about the state of the road in recent years have been well documented.
Brown called it “preventative maintenance” to avoid the roads cracking and forming potholes.
The council resealed 49.5km of road in 2023-24 but Brown said the council used to reseal over 100km per year until budget restraints had drastically reduced that figure.
It could again this year after the councillors voted 6-4 to allocate the money to additional reseal work.
Deputy mayor Liz McMillan, councillors Leen Braam, Russell Ellis, and Carolyn Cameron voted against the motion.
The council is already underway with work on 60km of subsidised reseals this summer.
Infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said the roading team was working out how to best fit the extra reseal funding into the work programme.
Any section of road to be resealed needs pre-seal work completed first he said.
“We are looking at what areas that need resealing need the least amount of pre-seal work to maximise the number of kilometres in the time we have got.”
The aim is to convert the money into 50km of resealed road, but they won’t know how much is possible until they complete the analysis, he said.
Once they have worked it out it will go back to the council for sign-off off, he said.
Any left over funding, or if timing issues arise to complete the work in the financial year, the council could then direct some funding to other roading projects.
The $2.45m equates to about 4.6% of the district’s total rates bill ($52.5m).
The council will face the same dilemma in the next two years but could amend the annual plan to remove the unmatched funding.
The road programme also includes $500,000 of unsubsidised funding towards unsealed road metalling
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