Decisions to be made on alcohol availability

Should the new Wanaka Sports Facility be alcohol-free? PHOTO: MARK PRICE
Should the new Wanaka Sports Facility be alcohol-free? PHOTO: MARK PRICE
Will here be wine and beer at the official opening of the Wanaka Sports Facility or just tea and orange juice?

With seven weeks until the opening of the facility on July 1, the question of alcohol availability has yet to be settled.

The Wanaka Community Board and the Wanaka Alcohol Group plan to meet on May 18 to thrash out the alcohol rules.

The chairwoman of both groups, Rachel Brown, would not be drawn on her personal opinion after yesterday's board meeting but, raising the issue publicly for the first time last December, suggested the facility should be alcohol-free as well as smoke-free.

Board member Lyal Cocks, for one, sees a problem with that, particularly as Rotary is lined up to use the facility for a national conference soon after it opens.

Ms Brown said yesterday the alcohol group was not the temperance union, which demanded total abstinence from drinking alcohol.

It was instead focused on ‘‘reducing the harm'' from alcohol.

The workshop was called to ‘‘discuss the idea of what an alcohol-free sports centre could look like'', Ms Brown said, and would explore the ‘‘opportunities and limitations'' of being alcohol-free.

Ms Brown said there was the issue of how events would be handled and there were also people who wanted to drink while watching a game.

‘‘Do we want that, or do we want to discourage that, like the smoking?''

Asked what she preferred personally, Ms Brown said: ‘‘I want to have the discussion.''

Ms Brown said the 18-20 members of the Wanaka Alcohol Group were trying to challenge the ‘‘normalcy'' around the use of alcohol.

She had received ‘‘quite a lot'' of positive feedback from parents since raising the idea of making the sports facility alcohol-free.

Asked if she would like to see an alcohol-free opening for the sports facility, Ms Brown said, ‘‘Only if that's what everyone decides we want to do.

‘‘I'm open-minded. I want to have that discussion.''

The facility, due to be finished on June 20, has no bar and is not licensed.

mark.price@odt.co.nz

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