Porirua school continues fight against liquor store

Porirua school and community continue fight against liquor store

25 July 2011

Tomorrow a Porirua School and community are taking their battle against a local liquor store to the next level, with a safer neighbourhood celebration. The gathering will include a symbolic public action showing how much the community cares for, and needs to protect, its children.

Russell School in Cannons Creek has been speaking out about the impact of having a liquor store 50 metres from the school gate. Principal Sose Annandale says the community has had enough of broken glass, drunken people and aggressive alcohol marketing.

“We are a strong, positive, caring community, and it’s time for us to be heard.

“We want to provide the best possible learning environment for our children – but that is extremely difficult when there is a liquor store just down the road, that is open long hours, and aggressively advertising low-cost alcohol.

“We even have to have a school rule against bare feet on the playing field, because of all the broken glass that ends up there. The glass also works its way up through the rubber matting on the playground.”

She says the event on Tuesday will highlight the great sense of togetherness in the area and how people are working together to shape a better community.

But it will also have a serious side, and is on the same night that many people in the neighbourhood will be submitting objections to the renewal of the license for the Fantame Liquor Store.

Sose Annandale says ideally the school would like to see the liquor store closed, or failing that, its opening hours restricted.

“Currently, the store is open from 9am to midnight. If the store is allowed to remain open, we would like its opening hours restricted to from 10am to 2pm, and then 5pm to 10pm. That way, it is closed when children come to and from school, and late at night.

“It is the only liquor store in the area open after 10pm, becoming a centre of trade in the late evening as people come from across the city. Often, these people will then park up to drink – which is extremely disturbing for families living in the nearby houses.

“We know that people are reluctant to walk through our neighbourhood at night, because of the liquor store.”

Mrs Annandale says the school would also like to see liquor advertising gone from the outside of the shop.

“We believe that constant exposure to this advertising risks our kids starting to believe that heavy drinking is the norm.”

The safer neighbourhood celebration will be held from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, Fantame St, outside Russell School on Tuesday 26 July. At 5pm, there will be a symbolic public action demonstrating how the community cares for and protects its children. The event follows a recent community meeting on the relicensing of the Fantame Liquor Store.
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