Selling alcohol to tourists ‘tempting fate’

SELLING alcohol to tourists at Mrs Woolly’s General Store in Glenorchy was ‘‘tempting fate’’, a hearing in Queenstown was told yesterday.

Peter Egden, counsel for Glenorchy resident Nikki Gladding, said it was ‘‘potentially dangerous’’ to sell alcohol to selfdriving tourists, particularly given the wellpublicised issue of visitors drinkdriving in the Queenstown area.

Ms Gladding was appealing a district licensing committee decision last November to grant the store an offlicence.

The licence application was made under section 34 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, under which the applicant must not be involved in any of a list of businesses that includes convenience stores.

In its application for the licence, store owner Glenorchy Marketplace said it would stock a range of six to eight Otago wines, and a similar number of craft beers.

The application was not opposed by the police, Ministry of Health or the Queenstown Lakes district alcohol licensing inspector.

Mr Egden told the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (Arla) hearing the committee had been wrong to conclude Mrs Woolly’s was not a convenience store.

It had ignored the store’s similarities to a convenience store and instead focused on the differences.

Although it sold items not typically found in convenience stores, such as wetweather gear, those items were ‘‘convenient’’ to someone visiting the township.

The offlicence would lead to an increase in alcoholrelated harm in the township, he said.

Counsel for Glenorchy Marketplace Richard Cunliffe said Ms Gladding had asked the authority to overturn a decision she did not like, yet had provided no evidence to show it was wrong.

The fact the police had not objected to the application gave weight to the view there would be no increase in alcoholrelated harm.

Alastair Sherriff, counsel for licensing inspector Carolyn Steele, said his client supported the view of the licensee, Ministry of Health, police and the committee that Mrs Woolly’s was not a convenience store.

Although the Act did not contain a definition for ‘‘general store’’, the authority had the ability to visit the store and see for itself in the ‘‘context and community’’ of the township.

‘‘Nothing in the goods and services offered supports a conclusion this is a convenience store.’’

The committee had made an ‘‘inevitable conclusion from a modest application’’, Mr Sherriff said.

Arla chairman Judge Kevin Kelly reserved its decision.

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