Dargaville liquor ban to be enforced

People drinking liquor in public in downtown Dargaville will be told to take it home or have it confiscated when a liquor ban begins being enforced at the end of the month.
Speeding and drinking motorists as well as those who do not wear seatbelts or restrain children in moving vehicles will also be targeted in a four-month-long blitz on persistent law breakers, according to police.
The Kaipara District Council passed the Public Places Liquor Control Bylaw recently for a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week all-year-round ban on drinking in the town's public areas. Council communications leader Claire Lichtwark-McInnes said the bylaw was already in force and would be enforced when signs had been completed in about two weeks.
"We want to give people the chance to fully realise the bylaw exists before the heavy hand of the law ensures people are adhering to it,'' she said. ``I understand some other areas are enforcing the bylaw without signs to warn people."
Dargaville police Senior Sergeant Jack Dudley said the best thing was to educate the public about the bylaw through signs. "But if members of the public were being disadvantaged because of the actions of drunk individuals in the ban areas then we would start making arrests," he said.
He said people found drinking alcohol on the streets or in cars within the banned areas would be told to take it home or it would be confiscated. Drinkers in Dargaville's banned areas were likely to be fined.
Mr Dudley said he did not see a problem with the hotels being overcrowded with drinkers because of the ban. There would be less property damage by drunks with the ban in force in the town. "It will be easier to police in those central areas because people know they can't drink alcohol there and there will be no excuse for it if they are found doing it," he said.
He also did not see the bylaw loading extra pressure on police time. ``We will be policing the `no drinking' policy in banned areas among the other duties we have to do,'' he said.
The liquor ban applies in public places near all Dargaville hotels, public reserves near the Northern Wairoa River including the Taha Awa Gardens, Memorial Park at Mangawhare and Selwyn Park on the eastern side of the town (excluding the motorcamp) to Grey St further east.
The ban also includes Jaycee Park in Hokianga Rd (near the RSA).
Mr Dudley said that as well as enforcing the ban police would blitz speeding and drunk drivers and seatbelt compliance. The seatbelt compliance rate in the Kaipara district was lower than in most other geographically, socially and economically comparable areas. ``We need to get that compliance rate up because other poverty areas manage to comply with the law in regard to restraints so people here can't keep saying they cannot afford restraints, especially when it comes to children's safety and everyone has to abide by the law no matter what their circumstances of life are,'' he said.