Liquor shop proposal shocks
A planned liquor store near a church and retirement village has riled residents of a Palmerston North suburb.
Milson residents are fighting a proposal to open a Black Bull liquor store in the area’s new shopping centre.
And things have got a bit heated. An anonymous flier doing the rounds has been called lies by the company behind the proposed store.
Palmerston North (Milson) Liquormart has applied for an offlicence for the bottle store on the southern end of the complex.
Neighbouring Milson Combined Church lay pastor Dave Donnellan said he was shocked by the proposal, and had lodged a formal objection.
‘‘It’s in the wrong location,’’ he said.
‘‘We have a lot of activities there involving young people, like Guides and Brigade, and there’s a primary school just around the corner.’’
Donnellan said the city already had enough liquor stores, and with the problems associated with alcohol harm, it did not need to create potential for even more things to go wrong in the community.
Milson-based city councillor Lew Findlay said several people had approached him ‘‘not very happy about it’’.
He referred them to former city councillor Billy Meehan, who spearheaded a community campaign against the Cloverlea Big Barrel in 2013.
The Black Bull application has raised the ire of Milson Super Seven Four Square owner Ashok Kumar. He could not formally object because he was a trade competitor, but said some of his staff and customers were upset and were lodging objections.
The new shopping centre backs on to the Julia Wallace Retirement Village, where manager Christine Brenton said she had not discussed the proposal with residents yet, but it would be raised at a regular village meeting.
Milson School board of trustees chairwoman Sarah Spillane said she could not comment without consulting the whole school community.
‘‘But it is quite a way away from the school itself and we have had no issue with another store in Milson selling beer and wine.’’ District licensing inspector Lynne Kroll confirmed one objection had been received. Black Bull has been targeted in a flier circulating in the neighbourhood and in some posts on Neighbourly. Liquormart company director Sahil Sharma said the anonymous flier was ‘‘just a piece of paper’’ spreading lies and he defended the company’s good reputation. ‘‘We can’t stop these kind of things, but we know what we are doing is right.’’ The company had 16 Black Bulls, including the latest due to open soon in Rangitikei St, Palmerston North. Other stores were in Taranaki, Whanganui, Kapiti, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Ohakune. There were stores operating under the Black Bull brand in other parts of the country that were separately owned.
Sharma said the company would not advertise alcohol specials outside the Milson store.
It was open to continuing its track record of sponsoring community activities and it had strict rules about stopping anyone who looked under 20 at the door for checks.
The company’s off-licence for the Rangitikei St store was granted in March.
Kroll said there had been one objection to issuing that licence, but it had been submitted too late to be considered.
She had not seen reports from police and public health officials about the Milson application yet.
‘‘Unless there is something in those reports, we will not be objecting.’’
Shopping centre owner Eileen Fair submitted a letter with the application, saying she did not object.
Objections close on June 9.