Local alcohol policies ‘a farce’, Dunedin mayor declares

DUNEDIN Mayor Dave Cull has taken another swipe at the country’s approach to local alcohol policies, saying the system is ‘‘a farce’’ that puts commercial interests before communities.

He was commenting as councillors received an annual report from the Dunedin District Licensing Committee, covering its work for the year to June.

The report noted the council’s watereddown local alcohol policy has been referred back to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA) for approval.

The policy was stripped of key changes earlier this year after being successfully appealed by a group including supermarket chains and liquor stores, leaving only uncontested aspects of the policy to be rolled out in Dunedin.

Mr Cull, speaking at yester day’s meeting, said he wanted to reiterate the approach to local alcohol policies (LAPs) nationally effectively put commercial interests ahead of community wellbeing.

The burden of proof was on councils to prove their policies would reduce alcoholrelated harm, despite an earlier royal commission having already identified the factors exacerbating that harm, he said.

There needed to be a ‘‘complete change’’ in approach at a national level when it came to LAPs, ‘‘because at the moment they are a farce’’, he said.

‘‘If you were cynical, you would say they have been set up to fail,’’ Mr Cull said.

His comments were endorsed by Cr Lee Vandervis, who said he had been shocked to discover — as a new member of Dunedin’s DLC — the committees were ‘‘almost toothless’’.

They could make marginal changes, but ‘‘the elephant in the room is price and distri bution’’, he said.

Developed in 2014, the city’s LAP included a proposal to cut offlicence hours back from 7am11pm to just 9am9pm.

It also proposed a moratorium on most types of bottle stores in North Dunedin, a requirement for alcohol management plans for offlicences, and the requirement for a certificate from the DCC planning department for offlicences.

New Zealand’s two supermarket giants, Progressive Enter prises and Foodstuffs, as well as six other parties, appealed those parts of the policy to the ARLA and won.

The ARLA ruled parts of the council’s policy were unreasonable and there was no evidence they would reduce alcoholrelated harm.

That left the council with the option of removing those sections from the plan and rolling out the remaining changes, such as oneway door and earlier closing times, as licences came up for renewal.

Council community services general manager Simon Pickford said all appellants to the earlier policy had now signed off on the revised one, which has been resubmitted to the ARLA.

With no appeals outstanding, it was hoped it would be approved and in place by early next year.

SATISFACTION with the condition of Dunedin’s roads and flow of traffic at peak times has plummeted in the past year, the latest Dunedin City Council residents’ opinion survey shows.

While 70% of residents were generally satisfied with the council’s facilities, infrastructure and services, satisfaction with the conditions of roads has dropped 10 percentage points to 39% since the 2017 survey, and satisfaction with the flow of peak traffic has dropped 8 percentage points to 38%.

Satisfaction with the condition of footpaths has also dropped by 7 points to 44%.

Chief executive Sue Bidrose said the survey was designed to let council staff know the areas where residents would like to see improvements.

‘‘We have worked hard to step up our repairs and maintenance programme in response to resident feedback, so I suspect these results reflect the amount of work we and some of our partner organisations have been doing on the transport network over the past 12 months.

‘‘Roadworks can be frustrating for all types of road users while they’re in progress, but in the long run they will improve the way people can get around the city,’’ Dr Bidrose said.

Aside from the roading, resident satisfaction remained relatively consistent over the past 12 months.

Overall satisfaction with the council is at 57% (down 1 point on last year), but since 2010 it has increased 22 percentage points — a trend seen reflected in many areas.

More than half of Dunedin residents continue to be satisfied or very satisfied the council delivers overall value for money (52%), and 47% are satisfied with the performance of the mayor and councillors (up 4 points).

Residents also continue to highly rate Dunedin’s cultural facilities, including the Dunedin Botanic Garden (95%), Otago Museum (95%), Toitu Otago Settlers Museum (94%), the Regent Theatre (90%), and Forsyth Barr Stadium (90%).

Forsyth Barr Stadium’s rating has consistently trended upwards in recent years and is well up on its 69% rating in 2012.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said the continued high ratings for cultural facilities highlighted the value Dunedin residents received for their rates.

‘‘The stadium hosted some massive events over the past 12 months and Dunedin is fast becoming a favourite destination for promoters to bring bigname concerts, so it’s no surprise to see the stadium’s rating now reach 90%.

‘‘Dunedin’s other cultural facilities all consistently rate very well in this survey and are the envy of much larger cities,’’ he said.

Of the 4800 residents randomly selected from the electoral roll to complete the survey, 1356 did so — a response rate of 28%.