Liquor polls ‘wasting time and money’

Press, 14 August 1980, Page 1

Liquor polls ‘wasting time and money’

PA Wellington Liquor-licensing polls are a waste of time and ratepayers’ money and should be abolished, according to the Licensing Control Commission. “We suggest they could be dispensed with without detracting from the rights of those who wish to object,” said the commission in its annual report tabled in Parliament yesterday. There was a need for small, neighbourhood taverns in a number of areas, but its efforts to meet this need were being frustrated by the polls, the commission said. “Invariably they raise a block to a proposal previously authorised by the commission with con-

sequent waste of time and substantial expense for those interested in it.” The commission was not advocating that people should not have the right to object to a proposal to establish licensed premises in a situation where they were going to be affected. “We are saying that they have the right under the Sale of Liquor Act, 1962, when the commission is considering whether to authorise licensed premises in a particular

area, and also under the; Town and Country Plan, ning Act. “Poll procedures provided for'in the Town and Country Planning Act, re- . suiting as they invariably do in the defeat of the proposal in question, alsoresult in a great deal of time wasted and ' expense incurred.” The commission said it; seldom, if ever, heard from local residents at review proceedings which gave rise to new licences. “It is only after a licence has been authorised and become a real, rather than remote,- possibility ’ that local people are motivated to. become involved,” it said.