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Get Home Safely In The Early Hours With The Sublime 5 Scheme

Thursday 22 December 2011, 2:34PM

By Marlborough District Council

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MARLBOROUGH

An incentive to encourage drunken revellers into taxis and out of the CBD to their homes is being promoted through bars and restaurants in Blenheim and Picton.

It’s a bid to find a local solution to the problems of both drunken behaviour in the CBD and drink-driving, supported by the Police and the Marlborough District Council.

On Friday and Saturday nights – the worst nights of the week for trouble – discount taxi vouchers are available. Bar staff will sell $5 vouchers, which local taxi drivers will accept for a taxi ride home up to the value of $10.

Seventeen bars and restaurants in Blenheim and eight venues in Picton sell the vouchers.

The vouchers can be used between 10.00 pm and 4.00 am in Blenheim and from 10.00 pm till 2.00 am in Picton where the bars close a little earlier.

Promoted by the Marlborough Alcohol Advisory Committee, it’s hoped the taxi voucher scheme will encourage young people in particular to get home safely.

The impact of late-night violent and dangerous behaviour within the CBD, including vandalism, imposes a cost on the whole community through the cost of repairs and insurances and diminished public safety.