Shared liquor, petrol sites called mockery

By WAYNE THOMPSON

A trend for liquor shops and petrol stations to be close neighbours is making a mockery of anti-drink-driving campaigns, say alcohol watchdogs.

The law bans service stations selling alcohol but has allowed at least six Auckland businesses an off-licence when a liquor store and a garage share a site but trade as separate entities.

Police and district licensing authorities say this means they would have no grounds to oppose a service station lube bay being converted to a liquor shop.

Alcohol Advisory Council chief executive Dr Mike MacAvoy said the Sale of Liquor Act intended to stop mixing sales of petrol and alcohol.

"Having the two physically close is just an attempt to get round the law if they are seen by the customer as a one-stop shop," he said.

"The purpose of separating the two enterprises was so if people stopped for petrol they bought an ice-cream and didn't buy booze."

Dr MacAvoy said Parliament in 1999 agreed with the act review committee that service stations having off-licences would undermine anti-drink-driving campaigns. The act prohibited off-licences where the sale of fuel was the principal business.

In the latest Auckland case, the Liquor Licensing Authority allowed the Highway Liquor store to open a month ago from premises built against the BP Ellerslie station.

Station owner Janice Breddy said she was surprised a liquor store was allowed so close to a garage.

Her landlord, the Lai Family Trust, subdivided the site and built two shops, one of which is now leased to Highway Liquor.

Mrs Breddy had not seen customers drinking but said people seemed to buy alcohol, then petrol.

Highway Liquor licensee "DJ" Singh said most of his night trade was local residents and he would refuse to sell alcohol to youths if he thought they were drink-driving.

Mr Singh's liquor licensing consultant, Peter Swain, said the only time an Auckland application had been hotly contested was in 1999 for a complex at Waimauku, near the Muriwai Beach turnoff.

Rodney licensing inspector Shona Markovina said she opposed the Waimauku application because she felt it was too close to a petrol station.

But the licensing authority ruled that while the liquor premises were part of the service station, the business was specifically selling liquor.

Mr Swain said it was nonsense to argue that service stations selling liquor encouraged drink-driving. It was like saying people should not drive to the local bottle shop.

Dr MacAvoy said he was worried about what would happen with the expansion of mini-supermarkets into service stations. The stations might argue that selling petrol was a secondary purpose and they should have licences like other stores.

BP, Caltex and Star Mart say they are not looking at trying to change the law so they can sell liquor in service stations. Gull Petroleum, which has 23 Woolworths stores on its sites, has not decided whether the stores will sell wine and beer.