Ban on new off-licences may not go far enough, councillors told
by Tim Scott · Otago Daily Times Online NewsBanning new off-licences in Dunedin's student quarter may not be enough to combat the "mountain of alcohol-related harm" the city faces, councillors have heard.
Public submissions on a draft replacement of the Dunedin City Council's local alcohol policy (LAP) were heard at a hearings subcommittee meeting today.
The current LAP came into force in February 2019, which the council was required to review within six years of it taking effect.
The draft replacement contained several proposed changes including amending the hours off-licence premises could sell alcohol to between 7am and 9pm, as opposed to 7am to 10pm, prohibiting the promotion of alcohol on the exterior of premises and a moratorium on new off-licence premises in an area north of the Octagon.
At the meeting, alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Steve Jones said police recognised several of the proposed restrictions would have an economic impact on some of the city's licensed premises.
"But this must be weighed against the economic and social impacts alcohol-related harm is having on our society."
Te Whatu Ora medical officer of health Dr Michael Butchard said the draft LAP, as it currently stood, would not provide enough tools to "shift the mountain of alcohol-related harm we face".
Dunedin city had the highest rate of hospitalisations wholly attributed to alcohol in New Zealand, at 159 people per 100,000 population during a period between 2012 to 2021.
In 2023, Otago had the second highest rate of alcohol-related harm ACC claims in the country, he said.
Data from Dunedin's emergency department showed that the city's alcohol problem was not limited to North Dunedin.
A moratorium on new off-licences in the area would not be enough to bring about change, and would maintain the status quo and the mountain of harm.
"To move that mountain, we all need to pick up a shovel.
"If the moratorium was a tool, it would be a deck chair to watch the mountain."
He recommended a sinking lid policy on off-licences in high-deprivation areas until the density of off-licences reached the current average density.
Bede Crestani, the father of a University of Otago student who died at a Dunedin flat party in 2019, said North Dunedin had a "culture and a history of excessive use of alcohol".
They had been trying for five years to address the issues of broken glass and rubbish in North Dunedin, which seemed to be a difficult area that was a symptom of excessive alcohol use, but also a problem in itself for safety in the streets.
"We ask, where else in the country would this be tolerated?"
He also believed there was an opportunity for supermarkets to help make Dunedin a safer place.