Booze board extends opening hours for all

| 21/12/2016 | 43 Comments

(CNS): The acting chair of the Liquor Licensing Board said holders of liquor licences can now open longer if they choose. Woody DaCosta said that during its quarterly meeting earlier this month the board agreed to a blanket extension on licenses to allow clubs, bars and restaurants to stay open late. It also agreed to an extension for New Year’s Eve, which this year falls on a Saturday when normally all places selling alcohol are required to close at midnight. However, licence holders on the Sister Islands will need to apply for the extension if they want to open later on NYE and in future.

At its quarterly session on 5 December the board changed specified operating hours for a number of licensing subcategories in accordance with section 11 (3) of the Liquor Licensing Law. Night clubs are now permitted to sell liquor until 3:30am Mondays to Fridays, with music and dancing now ceasing at 4:00am. Bars and restaurants are now permitted to sell liquor until 1:30am Mondays to Fridays, with music and dancing now ceasing at 2:00am.

Liquor sales, as well as music and dancing, will continue to cease at midnight on Saturdays and Sundays but the board granted the same extended hours for New Year’s Eve.

“All other licensing stipulations will remain in effect, especially as it relates to closing time,” said DaCosta. “Liquor sales must cease during the last thirty minutes of the permitted hours. In addition, to avoid any issues with one’s licence, there should be no customers remaining after the stated closing time.”

Licence holders in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, however, will need to apply to extend their hours of operation, including for this holiday season. The Liquor Licensing Board of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman recently decided that bars, restaurants and hotels may be permitted on application to sell liquor and play music until 2am Mondays to Fridays. Licensees are required to submit an extension application for the increased hours. The board will then grant or deny the request.

The board will review extension applications during its last meeting of the year, scheduled for Friday, 23 December, at 10am in the District Administration Building’s conference room in Cayman Brac.

For more information, licence holders and members of the public may contact the Department of Commerce and Investment on 945-0943 or email info@dci.gov.ky or board chairman Nathaniel Tibbetts at kptib@candw.ky; or call DCI’s Lolita Bodden-Arch on 948-2400.

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Comments (43)

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  1. Beaumont Zodecloun says:

    Not good news for those of us who have to deal with the continuous thump of music until the wee hours. We have legislation which addresses loud music by bars and nightclubs which are in residential areas (Town & Communities Law and others), however that legislation lacks a decibel measurement, which leaves the judgement up to the police — who are immune to 30 seconds of thump — and the Liquor Licensing Board, who are mostly absent when such issues come up.

    For many of us, the hours in which we can achieve sleep have just been reduced by two, and for what……. so people can drink and drive home two hours later? Apart from my own selfish needs, I’m not seeing this as a benefit for the Cayman Islands. Will this be good for employment — people staying out drinking two more hours and then going to work?

    I think the Liquor Licensing Board has really failed the country. Are the LLB members going to be out there at 4:00 a.m. enforcing the new policy? Making sure that liquor sales stop 1/2 hour before closing and ensuring that everybody leaves the venue at the close of business? Well, not any more than they ever have, is my guess.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Well it’s about high time. We party people around here needed more entertainment. I am definitely pleased with the extended hours which was long-overdue. You so call Christian people who is against this ruling, please.take a chill pill. Your main concern should be about you all. being hypocritical for as soon as Church is over, asking people what number just played? If it was numbers they had just legalized you all would had smashed through the church door just to get to play your numbers.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Great, so everyone one can get tanked, as long as they went to the bank on Thursday. Because, apparently December 23rd is a new holiday that I did not know about. So all the flipping backs closed early. I mean really what the heck. Four days off is clearly inadequate for bank staff. Screw commercial customers, what a bunch of crap.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Good, now I can go out to a bar and then go straight to work.

  5. Anonymous says:

    When will they learn that our beautiful country and worship of the lord and savior Jesus H Christ are being destroyed by these money hungry liquor peddlers. Honest hard working Caymanian men are being lured away from their families and jobs by the bottle and the morally corrupt harlots that hang around these establishments.

    Lol just kidding. None of that is true apart from the harlots (God bless them). You’re no more or less likely to get stabbed between 2-4am than you are between 12-2.

  6. Anonymous says:

    A step in the wrong direction!

  7. Anonymous says:

    I am sure the business owners would trade these two hours from 2:00-4:00 Monday to Friday for 12:00-2:00 on Saturday.

    There is no real benefit staying open until 4:00 during the week, dealing with guests who show up drunk, already spent all their cash, problems outside, staff issues, the list goes on.

    The extra two hours Saturday night (Sunday Morning so as not to confuse 9:53) would actually add a new night of business. I rarely go to a bar on a Saturday after a movie, dinner or an event because i do not like the lights coming on an hour after I have arrived.

  8. Cayman Underground Prince says:

    The PPM magic liquid for its voters give them boose and turkey and then tell them who to vote for what a strategy!!

  9. Anonymous says:

    Great news for the alcoholic and drug user lobby and those businesses that capitalise on their addictions. Bad news for future road deaths/rapes/stabbings and domestic abuse. It should have hehoved the licensing board to require these predatory establishments to bear more responsibility for the costs and consequences in exchange for the later openings. Keeping in mind that taxis don’t exist at 4am.

    • Anonymous says:

      9:55, Not everyone that goes to a bar / night club is an addict, some people just like to socialize with their friends or dance to loud music. And taxi’s are available at 4am in Cayman, its just a question of whether you can afford one.

      • Anonymous says:

        Many, many people that create problems with their drinking don’t know it. They are surrounded by similar people. In bars for example.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I’d be much happier to see things left as they were but extend the drinking / opening times for a Saturday night. It’s an embarrassment. This is supposed to be a first world tourist destination – and don’t give me that religion bo****ks either. When your leader of government is out in vegas gambling on the country’s credit card I think that says it all. Not to mention shops are to close on a Sunday, unless there is a cruise ship in so we can fleece some more tourists. Get real Cayman and grow up.

    • Anonymous says:

      The first world tourist destination where even the Kimpton has last call at 11.15pm on a Friday night. Maybe we should be pitching our tourist model to the non-drinking Muslim communities of the world. Seems to be a perfect fit for them.

      • Anonymous says:

        Any establishment open to the public opens and closes based around the periods when they will earn more than it costs them to be open. Hours are based around the behaviour of customers essentially. I would love to be able to have an 8 course meal at 3 a.m., but I know I am the only person who wants that so I don’t hold the fact that I can’t do this against anyone. Hotels, which have constant and high semi-variable costs to give guests what they expect, do not keep services available past the hours they are profitable to provide. I would be surprised if the Kimpton took last call at 11.15 and knew full well it could be making more money later into the night. Not that ‘operational priorities’ can’t sometimes trump profit-making considerations, but for large enough companies, they generally don’t.

      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t drink. I am not a Muslim. I do happen to be aware of the destructiveness of drinking. It’s deeply ingrained, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. Scared bro?

      • Anonymous says:

        Was there for a function, Kimpton is just blah, a lot of hype without substance.

  11. Anonymous says:

    christmas. i always leave this country- too many drinksrds on road!!!! a couple years ago i sae a guy in a bmw sittig in his car i a cow pen. couldnt get out because og cow. when ge eventually sobered up? up on linford pierson hwy! ha ha ha!

  12. Anonymous says:

    The Liquor Licensing Board has yet again contributed to the damage of Caymanian culture and religious heritage in extending liquor sale and opening hours. This decision places yet a greater strain on our police and other resources.

    The Acting Chair and Board members should hang his head in shame for these decisions which will have detrimental and far-reaching effects.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Well the RCIPS just have to sit outside the bars and night clubs and pick up potential drink drivers, or take the numbers of the cars and check them the next day.
    Nobody stays in a bar or club until 3/4.00am and drinks sodas or fruit juice.

  14. Anonymous says:

    I don’t like this…it just seems contrary to the appeal of the country. If I wanted late night clubs (and high rises and traffic) I’d be living in South Beach. This is bad for everyone – future victims of car accidents, the DUI crowd, families & teens, early morning cyclists—well, bad for everyone except the business owners. There seems to be a trend in Cayman…

  15. Anonymous says:

    Hold on a minute. Am I the only the only one that’s confused after reading this?

    “Night clubs are now permitted to sell liquor until 3:30am Mondays to Fridays, with music and dancing now ceasing at 4:00am. Bars and restaurants are now permitted to sell liquor until 1:30am Mondays to Fridays, with music and dancing now ceasing at 2:00am”

    So what happened to Friday nights? I don’t see anything in this article about what time on Saturday mornings these places are now closing. I believe it should say that closing times are 2 am and 4 am, Monday to Saturday. And it goes on to say that liquor sales and music must cease at 12 midnight on Sundays but at the same time it’s stating that operations can continue until 2 am and 4 am on a Monday morning.

    One would think that the powers-that-be would’ve read over this information before it went public.

  16. Anonymous says:

    What a difference now that we have a chairman with sense, on the board

    • Anonymous says:

      Kudos to the acting chairman and the new board; however, liquor licensing seems to have to gone downhill since they got rid of mitchell welds and vindictively pushed aside the board secretary. I have been waiting to get my new license since september and every time you call this DCI office no one seems to know what the hell they’re doing. I know I’m not the only license holder that had some frustrating experiences when it come to liquor licensing this past year but, unfortunately, it’s situations like this that Government fails to recognize. Sad.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Yes yes…..we need more hours in the day to drink liquor. My god, if they are letting the clubs open until 4am then why close at all. Might as well let them be open 24 hours. Come on I might wake up at 420 am for a wee and think…. Hmmmmm I sure could go for a drink……

  18. Anonymous says:

    a step forward for sure…but makes the saturday night 12 o clock closing even more absurd……

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