Queenstown police asked the council to adopt a 48 hour liquor ban in central town, including Village Green, on a Crate Day weekend this year.

Queenstown police are asking for a liquor ban during Crate Day weekend to avoid last year's carnage on the Village Green.

Police put through a submission to the Queenstown Lakes District Council asking the council to adopt a temporary 48 hour alcohol ban on December 2 and December 3 in Queenstown central.

The council will make a decision at its meeting in Wanaka on Thursday.

Dasha Kuprienko The Queenstown Village Green is one of of the areas police want to impose a 48-hour alcohol ban during Crate Day weekend this year.

About 300 people showed up at the Village Green for an an impromptu Crate Day party on the first Saturday of December last year.

No arrests were made on that day and police were filmed playing cricket with the crowd

However, police later said they were concerned about the level of intoxication.

NZ Police The aftermath of an impromptu Crate Day party on Queenstown's Village Green on Saturday December 3, 2016.

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A rugby league tournament will also be hosted in Queenstown on the same weekend, about 200 meters away from the Village Green.

Areas proposed for a two-day liquor ban were Village Green, the recreation ground, Queenstown Gardens, Queenstown Bay, Lake Esplanade, and town centre.

Senior Sergeant Paula Enoka, of Queenstown, said the "happy day occurrence" had turned into "carnage" previously.﻿

"Two years ago it was not managed and it was messy. Last year it was slightly managed and we were lucky, I think.

"This year we want to make sure that we are prepared, resourced and taking every opportunity we can to prevent social harm and one of those things is putting submissions through for a liquor ban," she said.

"It's not only social harm to those that are involved, it's people walking past - how are they impacted? Does that mean that they won't then return to the city centre?"

There is no year-round liquor ban for the Village Green area although temporary bans are imposed during the summer holidays.

The party was costly for police and the council too, she said.

"You are looking at things like detox of intoxicating people, injuries caused by their behaviour and management."

Police officers from Invercargill and wider Otago region would assist during this year's Crate Day weekend.

"It's for any kind of event, not just Crate Day. It becomes a focus for us when you have a gathering of people that has the potential to to go bad," Enoka said.

In the council report, regulatory manager Lee Webster says the event caused "significant issues" of disorder and strained police resources.

"The National Crate Day event has been going for a number of years, but since 2015 the police have noticed a significant uplift in the numbers of people congregating in public places in the district to consume large amounts of alcohol," he said.

Police responded to a number of disorderly incidents during the Crate Day gathering at Village Green in 2016.

"The police say that they exercised restraint on this occasion and decided not to make arrests because of concerns that a strict application of the law to disorderly incidents might inflame the intoxicated crowd and lead to a wider disturbance," Webster said.

Members of the public also approached police and said they felt unsafe due to the behaviour and language of drinkers, he said.