Every extra hour a bottle shop is open can increase alcohol harm, say police who are seeking earlier closing times in Tasman.
The Tasman District Council is reviewing its local alcohol policy, which can set opening hours, put restrictions on locations, and place other rules on the sale of New Zealand’s most consumed drug.
The current policy allows on-licences, such as pubs, restaurants and late night bars to trade between 8am and 2am, while off-licences - like bottle stores or supermarkets - can trade between 7am and 10pm.
But many would like to see these rules tweaked. Police have advocated to reduce off-licence hours from 9am to 9pm, as have the Medical Officer of Health and licensing inspectors.
At a workshop discussing the policy review, senior environmental health officer Tracy Waddington said that from speaking with bottle stores, the period between 9pm and 10pm was when they refused service most often.
“Customers are more likely to have been already drinking and are looking to top up,” she said.
“The only reason they're not voluntarily closing that night on those days, as well as the other days of the week, is because their competitor might not and they don't want to give them an inch.”
Team leader environmental health Deirdre O'Grady said every hour off-licences were closed had significant implications for police.
“We meet with police on a weekly basis ... and one of the things they always say is that every hour just makes a huge difference.”
At the workshop, councillors expressed a preference to stick with the status quo for the trading hours of off-licences, but options for reducing opening hours will be included in the public consultation on the review.
Council staff also explained the options for alcohol controls near sensitive sites - such as schools, playgrounds and early childhood education centres.
In 2023, an application for a liquor store 50 metres away from a Māpua primary school was declined after a hearing and strong opposition.
Had a policy been in place prohibiting new off-licences near schools, it would have stopped the application and saved the council the $40,000 cost of a hearing, councillors were told.
“It kind of wastes the applicant's time, the community's time in having to fight it essentially, and then it's an expense for council as well,” community policy advisor Cat Budai told the Nelson Mail.
In terms of community feedback, 78% of respondents agreed that new off-licences should be restricted near schools, playgrounds, and early childhood education centres.
Workshop materials noted that proximity studies done in New Zealand reported that living closer to alcohol outlets was associated with hazardous drinking and multiple crime outcomes.
“If bottle stores are located close to school grounds, then they do see a lot of drinking in the school grounds after school hours, and so the children are confronted with ... the evidence of people's drinking in their school space, in their safe space,” Waddington said.
But councillors indicated their preference was to again to stick with the status quo, wary of inadvertently catching boutique, high-end or specialty local products in the same net, such as mum-and-dad run cellar door operations.
However, the community will be consulted on options around sensitive sites.
Councillors also weren’t keen on regulating online sales, but were interested in a discretionary condition for off-licenses, allowing them to ban “buy now, pay later” at liquor stores. Budai said communities had really “kicked off” about that issue in other parts of the country.
Councillor Kit Maling questioned whether the council should have a policy, as “those who are going to abuse will abuse anyway, no matter what rule you have.”
Tasman mayor Tim King said there did not seem to be a compelling case to change anything significantly.
“Let’s keep it simple, status quo, and we’ll see what comes back from the public,” he said.
The council’s draft local alcohol policy is scheduled to go to a council committee to be approved for consultation in June.
Tasman alcohol statistics
(Source: Tasman District Council local alcohol policy workshop material)
- In 2025, Tasman had 227 alcohol licences, of which 30 were for clubs, 84 were for off-licences and 113 were for on-licences. Off-licence sales account for 84% of sales by total beverage volume.
- Police recorded alcohol related harm has increased steadily across the district between 2021 and 2025, increasing by 196 incidents over this period, or 23%, with particularly high concentrations in Richmond and Motueka.
- 36% of alcohol harm in Tasman over the last five years was related to family harm, 24% was related to drink driving.
- Eighteen percent of Tasman residents drink at levels that are hazardous to their health.
- Around 23% of Māori and 22.5% Pasifika people were estimated to be drinking at a level classified as hazardous to health. In the 2023 census, Māori were recorded as 9.9% of Tasman’s population and Pacific peoples 2.6%.
- An estimated 316 hospital admissions for Tasman residents in 2023/24 were attributable to alcohol. Conditions with the highest estimated alcohol-related admissions included: 89 unintentional injuries, 39 for transport injuries, 17 for pancreatitis, 14 for self harm, and 11 for liver cirrhosis.
- Statistics collected on alcohol related presentations and hospitalisations have shown a decrease in the recording of alcohol-related ED presentations of Tasman residents at Nelson and Wairau hospitals. However, the use of an “unknown” flag variable, meaning staff could not determine if alcohol was a factor in a presentation, increased over 200% over five years, limiting the ability to have confidence in trends in alcohol related presentations. Overall, ED presentations of Tasman residents to these hospitals increased 19%, from 11,544 to 13,701.
- Data from the police shows that the geographic impact of alcohol harm is disproportionate to the population in Motueka, where harm has increased 18% from 2021 to 2025. The town accounts for 27% of alcohol harm despite only having 14% of the region’s population.
- Richmond’s figure of 31% was matched by its population.
