Roskill Community Voice

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Safer Three Kings: No More Bottle Stores

In 2018 we helped the Three Kings community to stop a new off-licence alcohol store from opening in their neighbourhood, and we won!

The campaign included several public meetings, encouraging and gathering submissions opposing the new store for the liquor licence process, an online petition signed by over 300 locals with several hundred more paper signatures, and working with Michael Wood, MP for Mt Roskill, and the Puketapapa Local Board.

The application for a new off-licence (bottle store) at 509 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, was WITHDRAWN by the applicant,because of the large number of community objections – well done everyone for speaking up and making sure Super Liquor and the applying business owner knew Three Kings wasn’t ok with another bottle store in our community.

This is a huge win, thank you so much for your support!

Petition background
Alcohol Healthwatch estimates alcohol-related harm in New Zealand costs $14.5m each day. The brunt is disproportionately on youth, Maori and Pasifika in our communities, and there is a link between high density of off-licences and the heavier drinking patterns that result in much of the harm. Harm includes the health of the drinker themselves, such as increased rates of cancer and fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as harm to others, with alcohol playing a direct or indirect role in many fire fatalities, drownings, suicide and self-inflicted harm deaths, and the growing road toll.

43% of all alcohol is sold from off-licences, like the one proposed. This Super Liquor would be a large store, the size of the old bed shop, likely focused on selling bulk amounts of alcohol at low prices. It would increase the amount of alcohol in our community when we need to limit supply, and in particular reduce sales from off-licences where the liquor is then consumed in unsupervised circumstances (in contrast with on-licences).

Three Kings already has a large number of off-licences and problems with anti-social behaviour as a result of alcohol abuse.

There have been repeated incidents of violence and abuse in the carpark across the road from the proposed site, at 546 Mt Albert Rd, with alcohol playing a role. Several nearby shops, including existing bottle shops, have been violently robbed in particular the Liquor Legends on Duke St and the Crown Superette on Melrose Rd.

Local schools and parks end up vandalised and littered with broken glass, as people drink alcohol purchased at bottle shops in public despite liquor bans. Resources of both council and schools have to be used to clean up the mess, when some of it could be avoided by reducing the sale of alcohol in the area.

There are a number of local sites of cultural importance where anti-social behaviour fueled by alcohol would be inappropriate, including places of worship such as the almost adjacent Three Kings Congregational Church, and Ranfurly Retirement Village which is a war memorial to the Boer War and thus a place of remembrance as well as home to some of our more vulnerable older people.

Finally, the District Licensing Committee process allows people to make submissions to object to the application, and this petition is an important opportunity for those who can’t make a submission to still be able to show their opposition. It is possible there will also be a hearing on this application, particularly if the petition is signed by a lot of locals, which will provide another opportunity for the local community to have a say.

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Health & Wellbeing

Updated and re-named for 2019

Everyone deserves to be able to be safe and well in their own community. We will support positive health and wellbeing initiatives and advocate fearlessly on behalf of our community to reduce harm.

What we’ve done:

  • Led a successful community campaign to stop the opening of a new large liquor store in Three Kings
  • Produced the first ever Healthy Puketāpapa Action Plan, adopted this year by the local board to focus community efforts to improve local wellbeing
  • Retained night-time alcohol bans at all local parks, including 24 hour bans at known trouble-spots
  • Collaborated with local police, Mt Roskill Community Patrol and Neighbourhood Support
  • Funded Out and About programmes in local parks to increase physical fitness, social connection and park use
  • Improved lighting at a number of parks and reserves, including along key active transport routes such as through Keith Hay Park
  • Produced local plans for future provision of water fountains, public toilets and shaded areas in parks
  • Invested in Healthy Rentals, a programme to help landlords and renters work together to make homes warmer and drier.

What’s next

  • Continue to monitor and advocate for the reduction of off-licence liquor stores and pokies in our community
  • Work with others to implement the Healthy Puketāpapa Action Plan
  • Promote active transport and park use as easy ways to include physical activity in daily life
  • We know that poverty and inequality are the root cause of many issues in our community. We will work to ensure that all of our people receive a fair go through policies such as the Living Wage and provision of good quality affordable and social housing, and access to transport options.

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Final Campaign Post

There are just 24 hours left to cast your votes in the 2013 Auckland Council elections.

We are urging all local people to make the effort to vote. At this late stage you will need to take your completed voting papers to the Mt Roskill (or any other library) and deposit them in the ballot box before 12noon on Saturday.

The Roskill Community Voice team has thoroughly enjoyed the campaign. We’ve done everything that we can to engage the local community, focussing on important local issues and running an energetic campaign on the streets of Puketapapa/Mt Roskill.

Our campaign has been focussed on a number of key issues:

1) Winning a Fair Share for Mt Roskill
We say that it is simply unfair that our community receives just 74c of funding from Auckland Council for every $1 spent elsewhere. This legacy of neglect must be turned around and we are the team who will fight for a fair deal.

2) Bury the Pylons
The Pylons that march across our communities and harbour are a blight on our neighbourhoods and Harbour. They would not be accepted in the eastern suburbs and the Waitemata Harbour. We have a responsible plan to underground the pylons and our campaign is building momentum.

3) Looking after our environment and restoring our cones
We are the team who has put real energy into looking after our Foreshore, streams, and maunga over the past term. If re-elected we will have a strong focus on restoring Puketapapa/Mt Roskill and Big King/Te Tatua-a-Riukiuta.

4) Reducing harms in our community
The Roskill Community Voice team has consistently stood up to reduce harms in our community and we will push to reduce the harm caused by pokies and corner liquor stores in our community.

Further to this we are the only team to produce comprehensive policy so that voters have transparency ahead of the election. We’ve also run high energy local campaigns to engage with local people and involve community in local issues, including Bury the Pylons, A Vision for Three Kings, and Fairness for Wesley.

We have been able to achieve a lot with two RCV members on the Board over the past term and we know that a full RCV Board will have the skills and vision to provide Puketapapa/Mt Roskill with real leadership in the next term if voters give us that mandate.

Stand up for a Fair Share for Mt Roskill: Vote Roskill Community Voice for Puketapapa Local Board and City Vision for Ward Councillors.

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RCV Policy on Reducing harms

Our families deserve an environment in which social harms are reduced. We have advocated fearlessly on behalf of our community and will continue to push for a safe and healthy community environment.

  • We will launch a drive towards making Mt Roskill/Puketapapa Auckland’s first pokie-free community. 
  • Building on the success of smokefree playgrounds we commit to delivering smokefree parks in Puketapapa/Mt Roskill over the next three year term.  
  • We support a sinking-lid approach to the number of off-license liquor stores in our community and more effective controls to prevent abuse of the rules. 
  • Work to build relationships with Pacific and Maori wardens to develop a presence in Roskill. 
  • Tackling graffiti by ensuring that it is removed immediately, and prevented by the installation of high quality anti-graffiti murals. Work with local community on mural design.  
  • Work to make Roskill a synthetic-cannabis free zone. 
  • We know that poverty and inequality are the root cause of many issues in our community. We will work to ensure that all of our people receive a fair go through policies such as the Living Wage and provision of good quality affordable and social housing.

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Supporting our campaign

There are now under three weeks until voting papers get issued for the 2013 Auckland Council

elections. Our team is campaigning hard and receiving a very positive response from the community.

We are campaigning for a fair share for Mt Roskill with a particular focus on:

  • Winning a fair share of Council resources for Roskill. Our community currently receives 74c of investment for every $1 spent elsewhere. 
  •  Burying the Pylons that blight our neighbourhoods and harbour.
  •  Looking after our environment and restoring our neglected volcanic cones
  •  Reducing social harms with a focus on reducing the number of pokies and halting the spread of bottle shops in our community.

To win a fair share for our community we need to encourage people to vote. You can help our campaign in one of the following ways:

  • Donate. Campaigns cost a lot of money and every dollar you give helps us to get our message out.
  • Deliver leaflets. Fun work and good exercise!
  • Help to doorknock or phonebank. This is our most important campaign activity. Help out to make a big difference. We can provide training.
  • Host a cottage meeting. Have friends or neighbours over to meet their local candidates.

Any help makes a big difference. To support our campaign please email on roskillcv@gmail.com or call on 09-620-9257.