Midnight boozers trash carpark

Underage boozers vomiting and smashing glass during late-night drinking sessions are turning a Masterton carpark into a weekend dump.
For months the parking spaces behind the businesses on the corner of Chapel St and Perry St have been a venue for teenage drinking and "pre-loading" - a police term for excessive drinking before people go on to pubs and bars. A quick search by the Times-Age yesterday found nearly 40 bottles and cans scattered across the carpark, with more smashed in gutters and doorways.
Among the bottles were many drinks associated with underage drinking - bourbon and cola and premixed vodka and midori "alcopops".
An empty Chardon bottle and a shot glass were also found.
The owner of an adjoining business, who did not want to be named, said last month a full bottle had been thrown through her window from the carpark.
She said beer from the bottle had sprayed over shop merchandise, leaving a sticky and hard to clean up mess.
Vomit was also found on the footpath outside the shop's front door most Mondays, she said.
Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said police were well aware of the problem and included the carpark in their weekend patrols.
He said four people - two males, aged 19 and 24, and two females, aged 17 and 34 - were arrested on Friday night in central Masterton for liquor ban breaches, with a further three people arrested for disorderly behaviour.
He said the arrests were part of a national and transtasman policing effort, dubbed Operation Unite, to crack down on alcohol offences, underage drinking and drink driving. But he said a programme to co-ordinate Masterton bars' responses to drunk patrons and a "one-way door" policy to stop bars from filling after 1am had lost its way since the death of its driving force, Jeff Workman.
Masterton District councillor Lyn Patterson said more needed to be done. She said the council was putting in extra street lights in the area to dissuade late-night congregating, and new legislation would soon make arrests over liquor ban breaches easier.
"We have got a lot of problems with minors and underage drinking in that area. It's a community issue, and I think council have to work with our community and the police to sort it out."
Masterton Mayor Garry Daniell said bar and store owners needed to play their part.
"We can't rely on the police to look after every establishment, and I think the responsibility does go back to liquor outlets."