The owners of a Far North winery and restaurant who have been financially devastated due to a delayed liquor licence plan to seek legal advice to claim compensation from the council.

Sovrano Estate and Restaurant owner Andrea Loggia has put the Waimate North business on the market after not being able to sell wine at his Italian restaurant for more than three months.

However, Far North deputy mayor Kelly Stratford has defended the council’s liquor licence procedures saying the time frame was “not an unusual amount of time” for a new on-licence application to be processed.

Loggia said he would wait till after the public notification period ends on January 23 and then “find a good lawyer”.

“They [the council] should compensate me because it was a major for any business losing three months of business.

“We did everything we could to avoid this situation,” he said.

“Anyone in my position would expect, okay you made a mistake and we gave you all the opportunities to fix it and you didn’t.”

Loggia, who also runs the award-winning Sovrano Limoncello business, has received lots of support from the community and further afield after the Advocate highlighted the issue on January 12.

“Local people are supporting us, even people from Christchurch have sent messages,” he said.

“We had people buying limoncello to support us.

“I know it’s little things, but I hope this will all help.”

The council did not respond to questions about compensating Sovrano.

“We have nothing further to add,” a spokesperson said.

Loggia lodged an on-licence application for his new Italian restaurant – formerly called Ake Ake – with the Far North District Council on September 29.

On November 8, a council staff member asked for additional documents for the liquor licence which Loggia sent the next day.

Over the coming weeks, Loggia contacted the council numerous times to chase it up but received no reply and in December found out they had “forgotten” the application altogether, he claimed.

The council has admitted an “unacceptable vetting delay” and has reviewed its processes as a result.

Once vetting was completed on December 6 it was publicly notified that same day, council said.

But because the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act states the public notice must be in place for 15 working days to enable feedback, and the working days can’t include the period of December 20 to January 15, the earliest Loggia can expect his licence is sometime after January 23.

This will be after the public notification period ends and a report is sent to the District Licensing Committee for their decision.

During all this time, diners have not been able to consume alcohol with their meals, which Loggia estimates is costing the business $4000 a day.

Councils usually take 20 to 25 working days to process liquor licences if all the required documents are provided and there are no objections from the public.

Far North Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford – who was chair of the District Licensing Committee at the time of Sovrano’s application – said it can take a lot longer than this.

Several months was “not an unusual amount of time” for a new on-licence application to be processed, she said.

Even if all the required documentation has been provided and there are no objections it can take at least six weeks, Stratford said.

Some of this time is for the public to object, and there is a vetting process that involves reports by police, the medical officer of health, liquor licencing inspectors, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

“Often when people apply for an on licence and they have to have a meeting with the medical health officer, it does take a long time.

“Where the police and medical officer of health and inspector of liquor licensing have to consider all the information … sometimes that vetting process is outside the control of the staff.”

Stratford said a temporary licence could only be given to someone taking over a premises that had not had the licence surrendered.

“They applied for a new licence not a renewal,” she said.

“Usually someone puts in an application months before they take over, and negotiates with the outgoing owner to get the licence to stay with those premises.”

Former film director Geoff Dixon, who’s lived in Kerikeri for the last 10 years, dined at Sovrano Estate and Restaurant on December 15 and met Loggia, who explained the situation.

“I couldn’t believe what had happened and offered to try and help.”

Dixon said he made phone calls to the council’s Chief Executive Blair King, Mayor Moko Tepania and Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford, along with Councillor Ann Court and Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis to no avail.

Dixon said a similar situation in New Plymouth was easily resolved recently, allowing a pub to continue trading over Christmas even though it was December 17 before they realised they needed a new liquor licence.

“It’s absolutely outrageous, to not be helpful to local businesses.

“When you compare it to the New Plymouth situation when their council got innovative and helped the guy trade through Christmas until he got the proper licence … why couldn’t our council do that?

“How did it ever get to this situation?”