The Restaurant Association made a submission in July 2024 on Wellington City Council’s Alcohol Fees Bylaw Review. View the RA submission here.
Officers subsequently considered the points in the submissions and made further amendments to the Bylaw where relevant, which were approved by the Council on 5 September. A summary of the submissions along with officers’ responses and respective amendments to the Bylaw have been published on the Let’s Talk website or available here.
The new Alcohol Fees Bylaw 2024 take effect from 1 October 2024. The key changes to the Bylaw include updates that were proposed in the draft for consultation:
- Allowing alcohol licence fees to be adjusted by council resolution through annual or long-term planning, as with other council fees
- Stating the 85% cost-recovery rate in the Bylaw to provide certainty for future fee adjustments
- Enabling pre-application meeting fees (which will only be charged for the second meeting and onwards
- Minor technical amendments for clarity and readability.
Following consultation, further minor amendments to the Bylaw include:
- Stating that proposed future fee changes will be publicly consulted as part of annual plan or long-term plan processes
- Stating that fee-setting will be proportional to the operational costs for each fee category of licenses
- Amending the explanatory note to state that
- Pre-application meetings are highly recommended for new applicants
- Pre-application meetings can be delivered online.
The new Alcohol Fees Bylaw 2024 along with its schedule of fees is published on the WCC website here.