Dozens of Dunedin bars and off-licences are about to have their liquor licences reissued with new earlier closing hours.
The city is getting ready to default to new national opening hours when the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act comes into force on December 18.
Up to 100 Dunedin premises with on-licences allowing them to open beyond 4am and off-licences allowed to open after 11pm will be affected by the changes.
But the city council says most premises licensed to stay open beyond 4am do not often stay open that late anyway.
Bars in the Octagon would be most affected, council liquor licensing co-ordinator Kevin Mechen said.
Several suburban pubs with bottle stores attached which might have the same hours as the pubs, to midnight or 1am for example, would be affected.
He could think of only one supermarket open beyond 11pm - Countdown, in Cumberland St, which was open to midnight.
Districts that do not have their own local alcohol plan (Lap) in place by December 18 automatically default to national standards specified in the new law.
They include opening hours of 8am to 4am for on-licences and clubs and 7am to 11pm for off-licences.
Mr Mechen said the previous Dunedin City Council was to have worked through its Lap this year, but local body elections and the need to prepare for a new licensing system, including selecting and training a new district licensing committee, and to prepare for other changes coming in on December 18, had pushed it to one side.
As other cities introduced their Laps, it became clear there would be appeals, so it was decided to wait until after the appeals period closed in late January to see how those panned out, he said.
Discussions on a draft Lap for Dunedin would then resume.
The public might also notice other changes from December 18, Mr Mechen said.
Applications for special licences for events would need to be in 20 working days ahead, to ensure everybody who needed to check it had time to see it and, potentially, for a hearing to be held. Between December 20 and January 15, no applications could be processed, so people would need to take that into consideration when planning events for February.
The new law also placed more responsibility on those providing alcohol to young people, including a $2000 fine for those who gave unmarried people under 18 alcohol without the permission of their parents or guardian, or supplied alcohol to young people without making sure food and non-alcoholic drinks were available, arranging safe transport, and taking steps to supervise the drinking and limit the strength and amount of alcohol supplied.
People could also be fined $250 on the spot from December 18 if they lend their ID to someone underage, used a fake ID or had an open drink container in a liquor-ban area.
Licensees were fine with the changes in hours, Otago branch president of the Hospitality Association of New Zealand Mark Scully said.
They had been aware the changes were coming.
The biggest issue for them was the change in fees structure, which would see licence fees increase to cover the full cost of the licensing process. It was previously subsidised.
The association was pleased with the council's wait-and-see stance on the Lap, which also meant there would be time to see how the new opening hours worked in the city.
Laps can stipulate opening hours for a city or district.
