law
3 Mar 2017

Westland mayor rubbishes idea of banning BYO at races

From Checkpoint, 5:27 pm on 3 March 2017

Proposed changes to alcohol laws would hurt horse racing meetings on the West Coast, says Westland mayor Bruce Smith.

At the moment people attending the races take their own alcohol, but that is being reviewed by the government after police identified alcohol at race meetings as a serious problem.

While BYO was banned at Auckland and Wellington race meetings, Mr Smith said it was nonsense for that to apply to West Coast meetings.

He said racing clubs would have to hire more security staff if they had to get liquor licences.

"So because of that, the club turns around and says 'well, shucks, we're going to have to raise the gate fee from $10 to $15'. And it's just absolutely unacceptable."

Mr Smith said drinking at race meetings on the West Coast was not a problem.