Tourism Minister Charles Clifford said he wants to ban the practice of transferring liquor licences in the Cayman Islands as a way to better control the spread of businesses that sell alcohol.
Tourism Minister Charles Clifford |
The island has used liquor licence moratoriums in the past to slow the proliferation of such facilities, and a moratorium on new licences remains in effect today.
But Mr. Clifford said those moratoriums haven’t worked as envisioned, and in practice they have been lifted in specific cases to allow attractions like Boatswain’s Beach to sell alcohol.
‘What has happened as a result of the moratorium is that it has created a black market,’ Mr. Clifford said. ‘We are aware of licences being sold for as much as $200,000.’
In one such case from November 2005, an advertisement was placed in the Caymanian Compass asking CI$60,000 for a liquor licence. Those licences are supposed to cost $2,500 a year.
Mr. Clifford said the liquor licensing process should be changed so that each new applicant is required to have their petition approved by the Liquor Licensing Board.
‘What needs to happen is that, if Charles Clifford wants to get a liquor licence and he hasn’t had one before, then he must go to the Liquor Licensing Board in his own right,’ Mr. Clifford said in a subsequent telephone interview with the Compass. ‘If (someone) doesn’t want the licence he has to give it up, and the licence is cancelled. It has nothing to do with what will become of (a new) application.’
Mr. Clifford first proposed the licensing change during the Legislative Assembly’s debate on a private member’s motion by Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush. Mr. Bush’s motion sought a review of the Liquor Licensing Law with an eye toward establishing distance requirements for businesses that sell alcohol.
Under Mr. Bush’s proposal, no new licences would be granted if the facility was within 3,000 feet of a church, school, homes for the elderly, civic centre, public beach or any other public area.
The issue of how Cayman awards liquor licences came under close scrutiny after a Jacques Scott Wine and Spirits store was given a licensing variation to move from Red Bay Plaza to Countryside Shopping Village.
Jacques Scott was forced to move from Red Bay because government demolished the shopping centre the liquor store was renting space in to make way for a new road.
Some Savannah residents and members of the Church of God objected to the licence variation because they said Savannah has traditionally been a dry area.
The specifics of Mr. Clifford’s suggested ban on licence application transfers have not been released yet. However, it’s unlikely his proposal would have prevented the Savannah situation because it only seeks to prevent licence transfers from one owner to another, not one location to another.
During the Legislative Assembly debate, Mr. Bush asked the government to make a wholesale review of the law and implement distance requirements that would have prevented the approval of the Jacques Scott licence variation.
Mr. Bush said legislation putting a 1,500 foot distance requirement between businesses that sell alcohol and schools and churches had existed previously, but was abolished in the mid 80’s.
He said Cayman had 551 active liquor licenses for everything from restaurants to liquor stores and urged the government to strike a balance between the desires of tourists and the need to protect the island’s youth from the dangers of alcoholism.
‘Underage drinking is on the rise in our community…it has been that way for some time,’ Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Clifford said a review of the Liquor Licensing Law was under way before Mr. Bush made his private member’s motion. However, Mr. Clifford called the proposal for a 3,000 foot distance requirement simply unrealistic.
‘The 3,000 feet is not only excessive,’ Mr. Clifford said. ‘This motion goes beyond just churches and schools. ‘Any other such public establishment’ is something that could be determined in many different ways.’
Mr. Clifford said it was likely that some kind of distance requirement would be imposed on new liquor stores. It’s also possible proposed changes could lead to increased licence fees.
Government hoped to complete its review of the liquor law by the spring.
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