There will be no bottles of bubbles on the Wānaka lakefront again this Christmas Eve, despite protests from two district councillors yesterday against the temporary alcohol ban being extended to cover the area.
There is already a daily alcohol ban between 8pm and 8am in Queenstown and Wānaka CBDs, and from 6am on December 27 to 6am on January 6 each year.
Following high levels of disorder on Christmas Day because of the annual "orphans Christmas" gathering at Queenstown Bay, Queenstown police asked the council to extend the temporary alcohol ban to include Christmas and Boxing Day in 2020 — it has been in place ever since.
In a report to yesterday’s full Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting, alcohol licensing team leader Sian Swinney said police considered the ban a "key tool" to help keep the community safe.
No quantitative data was provided by police to demonstrate a high level of crime or disorder exacerbated by alcohol consumption in the CBDs.
However, there was anecdotal evidence of hundreds of people gathering on Christmas Day pre-Covid, consuming large amounts of alcohol.
"Police describe the crowd as initially good natured. But during the afternoons, police have become concerned with the deterioration of behaviour that has potential to escalate into violence and serious incidents," Ms Swinney said.
In some situations, people had not been arrested for fear that it would anger the intoxicated crowd and lead to wider disturbances.
Meanwhile, council staff had observed crates, bottles, broken glass and boxes left on Queenstown beach and reserve after Christmas celebrations previous years. Extra bins and toilets were subsequently deployed and, in 2019, council-contracted ambassadors were employed to help.
For the past two years, the council was satisfied that a high level of disorder justified an alcohol restriction in both the Wānaka and Queenstown CBDs, and police said it had been successful.
However, Wānaka councillor Lyal Cocks said he could not support the recommendation because there was no evidence showing there was an issue in Wānaka, which was required for the ban to be made under the Local Government Act’s bylaw criteria.
"I totally support alcohol bans, when they’re justified.
"What you’re basically trying to do is put a ban in to pre-empt any disorder.
"My argument is, either you take Wānaka out, or you put all the other [areas] in."
His stance was backed by Cr Niki Gladding who proposed to remove Wānaka from the ban — that motion was lost.
Cr Quentin Smith, of Wānaka, was astounded there was even a discussion about it.
"There’s clearly disorder in the location ... there’s a long history of disorder from alcohol in the downtown of Wānaka and in other centres.
"Quite frankly, I think it’s extraordinary we’re debating this.
"Police have asked for this; we should be supporting police in addressing this issue in our downtown areas."
The council ultimately voted to declare the temporary ban in both CBDs from 8am on December 24 to 6am on December 27, after which the New Year alcohol restrictions begin.
