Local Alcohol Policy

Council's Local Alcohol Policy (LAP)

Council's Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) was fully operative on the 1 April 2016. You can read the final decision of the Alcohol and Regulatory Licensing Authority (ARLA) and the Adopted Local Alcohol Policy(PDF, 513KB).

After a review in 2021, Council resolved to continue the LAP, without change, at its meeting on 25 January 2022.

What is a Local Alcohol Policy?

The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 enables us to develop a local alcohol policy for the district. The Act gives communities a greater say on where and when alcohol is available in the district.  

The overall purpose of the law is to better ensure that alcohol is sold, supplied and consumed safely and responsibly to minimise alcohol-related harm. Our policy sets out alcohol licensing criteria for when, where and how alcohol is sold in the Thames-Coromandel District. It is intended to guide the District Licensing Committee in their decision-making regarding licensing matters in the district, as well as provide a guide for those applying for an alcohol licence in the district.

From 2013-2016 we worked through the legislative process to develop our policy. To help us develop our draft policy we sought input from the community and key organisations and industry at various stages of the process.

This feedback helped to ensure we developed a policy that would meet the needs of our communities, encourage responsibility in the local alcohol industry, and reflect the Coromandel's characteristics as a popular holiday and event destination. Overall the policy direction is to help minimise alcohol-related harm in our communities.

Developing Our Local Alcohol Policy

To inform our draft policy we:

• gathered information to better understand the situation we have in the Coromandel already and alcohol-related issues, including talking with Police, Inspectors and Medical Officers of Health.
• undertook a survey to hear your views on alcohol availability in our communities.
• held industry forums around the peninsula to talk to those involved in the local alcohol industry about the new law and how it could impact business.

Findings of this work are reported in the LAP Research document.(PDF, 4MB)

All the information gained helped us develop a draft LAP for our district. We received over 50 submissions and Council heard submissions and deliberated on 2 December 2013. The Council adopted a Provisional LAP on 18 December 2013, which was notified for an appeal process on 17 January 2014. Anyone who submitted on the draft LAP could make an appeal.