Liquor-store fight unites a community

Hannah Pringle, 13, from Tri-Star Gymnastic Club, was part of a demonstration at the fun day. Photo / Richard Robinson

A grassroots uprising against a new liquor outlet in Mt Roskill brought the community together at a fun day on a once-shunned local park at the weekend.

Molley Green Reserve, off Richardson Rd near Waikowhai Intermediate, became the focus of a petition which attracted almost 1000 signatures late last year against a proposed new liquor store a few metres away.

Local resident Rachael Vakauta, who has lived in the area since she was 4, said she had had to stop her six children playing in the reserve "because there is always guaranteed to be broken glass there".

Yesterday she said she hoped her family would be able to play in the park again after thousands of locals turned out for an event that included music, dancing, gymnastics, sack races and other sports, food stalls, fire engines, clowns and a giant water slide.

"I was really blown away seeing the community come together like that."

She was part of a local church group that raised money at the event for their annual camp at Rotorua.

"A lot of families go to Rotorua every year but they are not able to get as much funding this year because of the recession, so we are fundraising so we can all still get there," she said.

Organiser Zena Wrigley of the Roskill South early years services hub said the community had been galvanised by the successful campaign against the liquor store application, which was withdrawn five days before a Liquor Licensing Authority hearing was due in December.

"Something that was a negative in our community has been turned into a positive," she said.

"This is a biggie, being in Molley Green, the fact that the community are coming on board for Molley Green."

The event reflected Mt Roskill's multicultural population, with a hip-hop dance group, a "Bollywood" group of Indian children from Hay Park Primary, Pakistani food stalls and a Coconut Freestylers Pacific dance troupe.

"Everybody cheered everybody else on, that was what I thought was so amazing," Mrs Wrigley said.

"At big community events, people come as spectators and go. This was not like that. This was a community event. People came right at the beginning and they lingered and they stayed. Even when we finished at 4.30pm they didn't want to go."

The event is likely to become an annual fixture.