Court ruling cuts city liquor store’s hours
A central Wellington liquor store has had its licence hours reduced after the High Court found there was ‘‘no realistic doubt’’ that it had contributed to some of the alcohol-related harm in the area.
Liquor King on Kent Tce – close to the city’s party zone in Courtenay Place – applied in 2016 to renew its alcohol licence.
The Wellington District Licensing Committee renewed the licence but reduced its closing time on Fridays and Saturdays from 11pm to 9pm.
This was done after the committee heard from police and Wellington’s medical officer of health, Stephen Palmer.
He cited evidence that showed the store was in an area with a large number of people in their teens and 20s, where there was a higher number of alcohol-related attendances at Wellington Hospital’s emergency department, and where there had been 1626 calls to police over a year for alcoholrelated incidents within 500 metres of the store.
Lion Liquor Retail, which owns the store, appealed the decision to the Alcohol Regulatory Licensing Authority after it last year permitted the store’s closing hours to be returned to 11pm.
Palmer and police had appealed that decision to the High Court in October last year.
In a decision released on Friday, Justice Karen Clark said the authority had reached a conclusion that contradicted the evidence put before it and, consequently, made an error of law.
Clark reinstated the decision by the committee, meaning the store’s hours would be cut from 11pm to 9pm.
The store moved to the earlier closing time on Friday.
The judge said the authority had wrongly believed that in order to decline Lion’s appeal, police and the medical officer of health had to show that the liquor store had been ‘‘at the centre of the harm’’ and there needed to be ‘‘demonstrable historical harm’’.
But the committee, in making its decision, had only to assess the risk of alcohol-related harm occurring in future if there was evidence that implicated the store. Clark said the committee found there was compelling evidence of this risk, and ‘‘I agree with that assessment’’.
She said that while it was not possible to link individual alcohol-related attendances to specific off-licences, ‘‘it is known that more than threequarters of all alcohol consumed is sourced from an off-licence’’.
Liquor King was ‘‘on the edge of the problematic Courtenay Place entertainment precinct, which is characterised by binge drinking offlicence through pre and side-loading, of ready-to-drinks (RTDs) in particular,’’ she said.
Palmer, who based his evidence on six years of data from alcohol-related attendances at the hospital’s emergency department, had not tried to link specific incidents to specific offlicences, ‘‘nor do I regard it as necessary,’’ the judge said.
‘‘There can be no realistic doubt the premises contributes to some of the alcohol-related harm in the locality. Given the proximity of the premises to the entertainment precinct, and the reasonable distance of other offlicences to those same consumers, it can reasonably be accepted that alcohol will be purchased from the premises for pre- and side-loading.’’ When Michael Mercer started at Hadlow Preparatory School 31 years ago, naughty students were given the strap and teachers dictated from the front of the class.
A lot has changed. During 22 years as headmaster, Mercer has led the Masterton school through some of its most important transformations.
He came to Hadlow in 1987 from Medbury School in Christchurch, serving as deputy to former principals
Kevin Boyce and
Allan Russell before earning the top job in 1996.
By then, Mercer knew exactly what he wanted to improve.
In 1999, Hadlow moved from being an independent private school to a partially state-funded integrated school.
‘‘Integrating made a huge difference because it was then that we had to bring all the buildings up to code.’’
But it is the transformation of the teaching itself that Mercer is most proud of. For the past seven years the school has been reinventing the way its curriculum is delivered.
Instead of one teacher in front of the class, the school is organised into four hubs, learning collaboratively. ‘‘I wanted to make school a happy place, and I made sure our learners wanted to be here. All my efforts have been in the interests of the children.’’
At 65, Mercer said it was time to retire before he lost energy for the job.
He will be replaced by Andrew Osmond, who is currently headmaster of St George’s, Wanganui.