Source: Radio New Zealand
Woolworths insists its store will allow customers to avoid exposure to alcohol. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Lawyer Grant Hewison insists Flaxmere is the wrong neighbourhood to promote more alcohol sales through a propsed licence at the local supermarket.
Woolworths has appliced for licence to sell alcohol seven days a week from 9am-9pm, but has met with strong opposition a variety of sources that claim the Hastings suburb already suffers from more than its share of booze-related harm.
Hewison, who is a member of Communities Against Alcohol Harm, represented a concerned resident at a hearing this week and told RNZ’s Checkpoint the application was ill advised.
“[Social harm] is really at the core of the licencing regime,” he said. “The key section is the object of the act that requires a good look at a whole range of the different parts of the social make-up of an area – the health of the community, the wellbeing of the community, issues like injuries, illness and crime… those sorts of things are at the core of whether a licence should be greanted or not.
“For this community in Flaxmere, those issues are really heightened.”
New Zealand measures deprivation through its communities on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most deprived. The national average is 5.5, Hawke’s Bay has a measure of 6.0, but Flaxmere is rated in the most vulnerable 9/10 decile.
“Personal responsibility doesn’t really feature in the way licences are regulated under this legislation,” Hewison said. “This legislation is about regulating the sale of alcohol.
“It accepts alcohol causes harm and we have a trememdous amount of harm generally in our population from the sale of alcohol – $9 billion of harm caused by this legal drug every year.
“Because of that and the real risks around the sale of alcohol, it’s regulated really carefully.”
Woolworths told Checkpoint it took its responsibilities as an alcohol retailer seriously and the Flaxmere store was designed so customers could completely bypass the alcohol department.
No alcohol displays would be positioned at the end of aisles, and the alcohol area would be close to the service desk and checkout area, where staff could monitor those using it.
Hewison accepted the Woolworths’ systems and staff training would be thorough, but questioned its responsibility once the alcohol left the premises.
“The thing that’s really difficult in these processes, particularly for applicants, is do they really undersand the community, are they really aware of the social issues taking place in this community and, at the end of the day, is this the right place to be putting a really large off-licence?
“There are two existing bottle store off-licences, which provide the full range of alcohol. This is very large by comparison with some of the other off-licences.
“We would be adding to an existing level of harm through premises in the area.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand