Bottle shop blamed by police for Ōtara public drinking denied liquor licence
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
A bottle shop blamed for an Auckland town centre’s reputation for public drinking and anti-social behaviour has been ordered to close after it failed to renew its liquor licence.
In a decision released on Tuesday, the District Licensing Committee (DLC) declined the off-licence renewal for Bottle-O Bairds Road at the Ōtara Town Centre because it would “likely improve the amenity and good order of the locality by more than a minor extent”.
The application had received strong objections from the public, with police labelling Ōtara Town Centre the worst for public drinking and anti-social behaviour, which forced the removal of a kids’ playground.
The off-licence renewal for 127 Bairds Road, Ōtara was filed in March 2024 by Jasraj Holdings Limited, a private company in operation since 2005.
During the hearing in May, Sergeant Richard Bracey claimed 80% of the issues at the town centre were due to the bottle shop.
Despite a 24/7 alcohol ban, he said his community policing team consistently dealt with drinkers outside the bottle shop.
“There is a benched seat seconds away from the store where we have arrested many persons drinking, and seized alcohol and disposed of it,” Bracey said.
The town centre’s playground and a seating area was removed earlier this year to deter anti-social behaviour and public drinking.
The closure of the liquor would be a huge improvement for the area, Bracey said.
“We can’t afford to lose a town centre, but the way it’s going with this sort of behaviour, the fear and how scared people are, it’s going to close this place down.”
Police hadn’t opposed the renewal but gave evidence for the licensing inspector who was the only reporting agency that objected to the renewal.
The application also received 166 public objections.
In the decision, DLC chairperson Marguerite Delbet stated the effect of renewal on amenity and good order was a central consideration, given evidence of the area’s significant deprivation, vulnerability and alcohol-related harm.
She said issues of public drinking and alcohol-related harm were raised at past renewal applications in 2018 and 2021, but were never supported with sufficient evidence.
“Ōtara is a highly deprived community,” she said.
“Poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental illness and wider social deprivation all contribute to the challenges experienced within the town centre.”
She said many witnesses in the recent hearing, including the applicant, acknowledged addressing those issues required a co-ordinated community response.
Delbet said the DLC regarded the removal of a children’s playground near the bottle shop was compelling objective evidence that amenity and good order of the locality was affected.
“The evidence demonstrates a community determined to reclaim its town centre.
“Police, Māori Wardens, the Local Board, churches, businesses and community organisations have worked together for years to improve it. Those efforts reinforce our conclusion that the continuing level of public drinking and associated nuisance is unacceptable.”
She said despite the applicant’s submission that he couldn’t address alcohol-related harm within the Ōtara town centre on his own, and a co-ordinated community response in the past, the underlying pattern of public drinking and alcohol-related harm remained.
“The evidence establishes a real and continuing risk that, if the licence is renewed, alcohol purchased from the premises will continue to be consumed inappropriately within the town centre and contribute to persistent public drinking, nuisance, disorder and wider harm in this particularly vulnerable locality.”
The bottle shop’s current licence expires on October 20.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.