Big guns blaze at 9pmclose
Proposals for bottle stores and supermarkets to stop selling alcohol at 9pm in Palmerston North have drawn opposition from the two big supermarket chains.
The city council’s third draft of a local alcohol policy has switched its focus from bars to off-licences in its attempt to reduce harm through restrictions on booze sales.
Many of the city’s bars earlier challenged council proposals to bring closing time in supervised premises forward one hour from 3am to 2am.
In light of submissions from them and other parties, the council rewrote the draft policy to tackle the issue of pre-loading instead.
City bottle stores have supported a curfew on sales earlier than the 10pm proposal in the previous draft.
The supermarkets did not oppose 10pm closing, but 9pm is seen as pushing the point an hour too far.
The latest proposal will be opposed by Woolworths NZ on behalf of Countdown, Supervalue and Freshchoice, and Foodstuffs North Island, parent group for New World, Four Square, Pak’n Save and Gilmours.
They have asked to speak to councillors about their views at a hearing on Thursday.
For Woolworths, national alcohol responsibility manager Paul Radich said in a written submission the council did not have robust or sufficient evidence to support 9pm closing.
It would affect four Countdown supermarkets in the city.
He pointed to recent legal cases where the link between offlicence trading hours and alcoholrelated criminal offending was weak, at best. Most people who pre-loaded before going to bars bought their liquor from a bottle store rather than a supermarket, and most shopped before 9pm anyway, he said.
Foodstuffs lawyer Olivia Taylor supported that view and said that with supermarkets banned from selling spirits or RTDS, they were unlikely to be connected to excessive or inappropriate consumption.
The time limit would create practical problems for supermarkets remaining open beyond 9pm and having to rope off their alcohol areas.
The police submission calls for the council to adopt 9pm closing for off-licences as well as 2am closing for bars, not one instead of the other.
They say problem drinking is not just about pre-loading, but also about the topping up at bars later. ‘‘An additional hour of alcohol sales has an effect.’’
They point to research by Otago professor Jennie Connor, which found an hour’s reduction in alcohol sales could reduce violent crime by 11 per cent.
‘‘Police submit that a reduction in the trading hours for off-licence and on-licence premises will have a positive impact on minimising the harm caused by excessive or inappropriate consumption of alcohol.’’
Thirty-three people have made submissions, with 10 asking to be heard.