A secret decision by the Tauranga City Council to remove the cap on the number of new bottle stores allowed to be set up in the city has been described as "disastrous" by a Greerton-based family support service.
Tommy Kapai Wilson, the director of Te Tuinga Whanau Support Service, said they saw the effects of bottle stores in poorer communities.
"Social services, hospitals and the police will pick up the bills," he said.
He was responding to the Tauranga City and Western Bay District councils succumbing to pressure from supermarket operators and bottle store chains and agreeing to lift the proposed cap on the number of new off-licences.
It removes a major plank from the Local Alcohol Policy in which the number of bottle stores would have been capped at 74 outlets in Tauranga and 35 in the rest of the Western Bay.
Mr Wilson said that just because alcohol was a legal drug it did not mean it was any the less catastrophic. "The decision allows free rein to open up more liquor outlets." He said there were six liquor outlets within a short walk of the whanau support service in the Greerton Shopping Centre. "It's a sad day, the problem will get worse."
The official announcement that the cap had been lifted followed the issuing of a consent order by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority yesterday. It resolved appeals against the cap by supermarket operators Foodstuffs North Island and Progressive Enterprises and bottle store chains Liquorland and Super Liquor.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said the cap would have put unnecessary barriers in place, with supermarkets and other convenience retailers reluctant to build new stores. It meant people would have needed to travel considerable distances.
"Removing the cap means these types of retail outlets may be more willing to look at developments in local areas."
He said liquor laws provided a number of tools for the District Licensing Committee which considered new off-licence applications to address local concerns. It included whether an area was likely to be badly affected by the bottle store.
Papamoa councillor Steve Morris told the Bay of Plenty Times the cap was removed in a confidential special meeting of the council about two months ago.
He said the vast majority of the more than 500 submitters to the Local Alcohol Policy wanted a cap introduced on the number of bottle stores.
Cr Morris said he was the only councillor to oppose lifting the cap.
He said dispensations could have been allowed in the policy so that it did not hold up the development of a supermarket.
"It is the worst decision we have made in 10 months ... it is weak, weak weak."