A mayoral task force plans to impose instant fines for drinking in public as well as earlier closing times for bars in a move to cut the central city’s noisy, violent and drunken image.

Len Brown, Auckland Mayor, yesterday brought together around 20 people from inner city businesses, the police, the hospitality industry, the churches and Maori and ethnic groups to come up with way to address anti-social behavior.

From Twitter…

 Instant fines floated for city drunks – National – NZ Herald News – http://t.co/HbGTvteX

— sonyapryr (sonya ash pryor) (@sonyapryr) Wed Jun 13 2012

The central city, particularly Queen St and Karangahape Rd – is fast becoming a notorious place for profanity, violence, and alcohol-fuelled drunkenness in the early hours. 

Recently, Mr. Brown said it was justifiable to say that an enjoyable and safe time in the central city is sometimes hard because of too much drinking.

“Serious assaults are down so we are succeeding at some levels, but there is still work to be done.

“I don’t want to pre-judge what conclusions the taskforce will reach but there are real opportunities in areas such as licensing and enforcement and I am determined that we can do better. For the sake of our citizens and our visitors, we need to investigate all options,” Mr Brown said.

To cut down drunken disorder, the police have teamed up with the Auckland Council to come up with a local alcohol policy.

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