Commissioners not implementing a liquor ban on 12th Ave but will continue to monitor situation

The council received a petition in May requesting for an alcohol ban to be put in place on 12th Ave. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga City Council commissioners have decided not to implement a temporary liquor ban on 12th Ave with one saying it could simply move the problem.

But the council will continue to monitor the situation over the next six months to see if it continues to improve and receive another update in December.

This comes after the council received a petition in May requesting an alcohol ban to be put in place following complaints of intimidation, defecation, urination, vomit and pre-8am drinking.

The commissioners received an update on the work done to address these concerns at a council meeting yesterday.

At the meeting, commissioner Shadrach Rolleston said rather than implementing a ban, "it would be worth monitoring the situation over the next six months".

"Things have improved just from the feedback we've heard today."

Tauranga City Council commissioners and staff. Photo / George Novak

Rolleston said potential future actions outlined in the report to address the issue were "a really good thing".

Actions included developing a council team (internally or externally) that could respond to community concerns, developing a city-wide approach to the issue, and broadening the scope of the Tauranga intensive case management group.

The current scope focused on supporting people experiencing homelessness who also had complex addictions and/or mental health, and a history of recidivist offending.

Broadening the scope would enable a greater number of complex clients to receive intensive case management between agencies.

General manager of community services Gareth Wallis said the council would address those potential future actions to see what it could do, and come back to commissioners in six months with details on what was done.

Commissioner chairwoman Anne Tolley said the situation came to their attention after residents spoke to the council and presented a petition.

"What we would like to see is they don't need to go that far to put a complaint into council.

"As we develop along Cameron Rd, we're hopefully going to have lots more people living there but we're also going to have more parking in residential areas so the potential for these sorts of situations to arise may be greater.

"I think we're trying to futureproof our systems so we can react quickly.

"If we deal with it here, it's likely to pop up somewhere else and then we end up with half the city with temporary liquor bans all over, which actually affects law-abiding people who might just want to sit in the park and have a glass of wine."

Senior sergeant Glenn Saunders said police would not support the imposition of a liquor ban.

Commissioner chairwoman Anne Tolley. Photo / George Novak

Since May 1, there had been a "slight increase" in calls for service in the area around behavioural offences that "probably align with homeless people", he said.

However, the increase was "marginal" with five offences per month in the behavioural category.

Saunders said this increase could be attributed to police working with residents and advising them to contact them if they had concerns.

He described 12th Ave as "a fairly unique area" which had a 24-hour food outlet and a lot of people gathered there after hours.

"We don't see a demonstrable link between what's happening there and alcohol.

"Generally, these homeless people do drink ... but we've got nothing that links these occurrences and offences we've responded to directly ... to the homeless people.

The council received an update on the work done in the last six weeks to address community concerns on 12th Ave. Photo / George Novak

"While there's definitely a link between the two ... it's not causing us enough concern to support [a ban]."

Professionals Tauranga real estate part-owner Paul Billinghurst said the issue outside his business had improved.

Billinghurst told the Bay of Plenty Times last week he had raised concerns at a council meeting several weeks ago in which the issue was discussed.

He said the next day and every day afterwards police were there moving people on. He also received calls twice a week from council staff checking to see if everything was okay and whether they could help.

"But the area is still a good place to come have a drink or sleep out the back. I still believe implementing a liquor ban around that area will be another catalyst to stop people doing that."

Billinghurst said his team was enjoying going to work as they did not have to "walk over vomit, faeces or urine" coming into the office.

On potential future actions, Billinghurst said the council establishing a team to address issues when someone called and complained would "go a long way" in helping prevent issues around the city, not just in the 12th Ave area.