Polish town bans shops from selling alcohol during night

The mountain resort town of Zakopane has banned the sale of alcohol in shops between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. in an effort to reduce antisocial and harmful behaviour. Other Polish cities have already introduced similar measures while some, including the capital Warsaw, have discussed doing so.

In Zakopane – a popular holiday destination at the foot of the southern Tatra mountains – 11 town councillors voted in favour of the ban, which will apply to shops but not restaurants and bars. Three abstained, six did not participate in the vote, and none were opposed.

The decision was made in part “due to requests from residents who complain about the increased nuisance from shops selling alcohol at night”, said Joanna Posadzka-Gil from the town’s legal office, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

It will also “limit the number of [police] interventions against disturbances of public order” and violations of Poland’s “prohibition on drinking alcohol in public places”, said the written justification for the new measures.

Zakopane has developed a reputation for a lively nightlife that can sometimes become rowdy. Last year, police had to intervene hundreds of times over one weekend when thousands of people flooded into the town following the lifting of Covid restrictions.

In July this year, police in the town were called out on average 70 times a day, notes Gazeta Wyborcza, mostly to deal with rowdy holidaymakers.

The new rules approved by the town’s councillors also ban the selling and serving of alcohol within 50 metres of schools, preschools, churches and homeless shelters.

Similar night-time bans on the sale of alcohol have already been introduced in several Polish cities, including Gdańsk, Wrocław, Katowice and Olsztyn, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.

In Warsaw, an urban activist group, Miasto Jest Nasze (The City is Ours), is calling for such measures to be introduced, and most city councillors interviewed by the newspaper expressed their support for tougher restrictions of some kind, though not necessary a full ban.

Poland has an average of one shop selling alcohol per 300 people, while in Warsaw the figure is one per 350 people. In total, Warsaw has around 3,000 shops selling alcohol – more than in the whole country of Sweden.

This article has been corrected to remove the erroneous claim that World Health Organisation guidelines recommend that one alcohol shop per 1,000-1,500 people is sufficient.

Main image credit:  Mateusz Butkiewicz on Unsplash 

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.