New Plymouth District Alcohol Strategy

In April 2007, New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) began to develop an alcohol strategy. The Council used a partnering approach, which won them the 2009 New Zealand Post Group/SOLGM Local Government Excellence Award in Joined-up Local Government.

Background

The Council decided to adopt a partnership strategy to tackle the problems with alcohol related harm being encountered in the District and used section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002 as its mandate. This section gives councils a responsibility to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of their districts, now and in the future.

NPDC decided that it would meet this responsibility by promoting safer alcohol-related environments, and reducing the harms associated with the misuse of alcohol, particularly in the central business district.

A national problem

NPDC reviewed the 2004 Alcohol and Liquor Advisory Council study of attitudes and drinking behaviour, which showed:

700,000 parents of children under 15 are heavy drinkers (consuming more than seven glasses on their last drinking occasion)
275,000 adults set out to get drunk on their last drinking occasion
1.2 million adult drinkers think it’s okay to binge drink
one-third of drinkers under 18 years of age had more than five glasses on the last occasion that they consumed alcohol.

The impacts of abusing alcohol are serious:

over a quarter of fatal road crashes are alcohol related
a fifth of drownings are alcohol related
approximately 70% of Police work is linked to alcohol-fuelled offending and victimisation, assaults, criminal damage, family violence, and drink driving (1,2)
Police deal with around 258 offenders per day who have been affected by alcohol (3)
the cost of alcohol abuse was estimated nationally at $5.3 million in 2005/06 (4).

The local response to a national issue

New Plymouth’s statistics show it has its share of problem drinking. In 2007:

10% of arrests were alcohol related (exceeding the legal breath-alcohol level, and drink driving) (5)
most people who consumed alcohol before their arrest were male (6)
most alcohol-related arrests occurred between 11pm and 3am, Friday to Sunday (7)
around 17,000 people drink to hazardous levels in new Plymouth, i.e. nearly one-fifth of adults (8).

In Taranaki over 200 people per year are hospitalised as a consequence of mental or physical harm from the misuse of alcohol (9). Injury is responsible for half of all alcohol-related deaths in New Zealand (10).

Cultural change

A change in drinking culture will not occur without supporting a range of activities, including:

better compliance and enforcement of the Sale of Liquor Act
controlled purchase operations to identify breaches of the Act
programmes for parents
policy measures
outlet density
advertising and purchase age and community programmes.

Many of these activities are best carried out at a local level.

NPDC recognised that councils play a crucial role in changing the culture of drinking through their statutory responsibilities for planning alcohol outlet locations, licensing premises and monitoring and enforcing alcohol laws, including their own bylaws.

Health choices are not made in isolation. They are part of the human social systems and community and family decisions structure how people socialise. NPDC recognised that addressing the environmental factors that shape drinking is more cost-effective than targeting individuals.

Partnership approach

To develop a local alcohol strategy NPDC (Environmental Health, Licensing and Enforcement Team, Community Development and Corporate Strategy) developed partnerships with:

NZ Police
Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB)
Accident Compensation Corporation – Injury Prevention
New Plymouth Safer Community Council
Ministry of Social Development
New Plymouth Injury Safe Coalition

Strategic approach

Following comprehensive research a strategic plan was developed to run from 2009 to 2014. Consumption of alcohol occurs at a wide range of environments and places throughout the district, and the plan emphasises the importance of promoting the safe and responsible consumption of alcohol in all settings.

Process

A Project Board governs the project, and provides a mandate for the Project Manager who has a strategic overview of the project (with the strategy development team). The many project team members have responsibility for engagement within and across the partner organisations.

Extensive consultation was undertaken with:

NPDC Councillors
Police Liaison Sub Committee
Iwi Liaison Sub Committee
Taranaki District Health Board (Research and Evaluation, Health Promotion)
Primary Health Organisations
Treatment Providers
The Alcohol and Liquor Advisory Council
Fire Service
Youth Sub Committee
Taranaki Family Violence Coalition
Toi Ora (Maori Health Promotion)
Tangata Whenua
Sport Taranaki and Sports Codes (Football, Rugby League and Union, Surf Lifesaving)

The action plan is collectively owned, and includes:

a document explaining the issues and proposals to address them
a literature review
interviews with key stakeholders
a draft strategy
feedback from the Alcohol and Community Safety Forum
a consultation plan
the local action plan
the final strategy.

Key actions

An MOU between the Police, the Council and the proprietors of all licensed premises in the central business district
Shared, closed-circuit television monitoring in the central business district, and signage about it (i.e. a safety feature and a source of police evidence)
A “Mellow Yellow” door staff programme where door staff at licensed premises wear high-visibility yellow jackets, and carry two-way radios enabling them to communicate with each other and directly with police
A partnership approach to deliver alcohol reduction, health promotion messages
Jointly-provided training for licensees and staff
A joint approach to working with people with an addiction to alcohol
Promoting safe drinking messages through sports clubs
Zero tolerance for graffiti (graffiti is removed within 24 hours)
The Road Safe Taranaki Young Drivers’ Day
More police patrols.

Complementary action

Each organisation identified how its work could complement and assist in the overall strategy. Examples include:

Work and Income - training all front line staff to deal with alcohol issues and an in-work support programme for people with a history of alcohol misuse.
NPDC - bi-annual meetings with licensee to disseminate information on regulation, enforcement and community issues surrounding alcohol use.
Sport Taranaki and other sports clubs - provision of information and advice to assist sport groups.
District Licensing Authority and NZ Police - inspections of licensed sports clubs to improve compliance.
Taranaki District Health Board - guidelines for alcohol-free youth events.
Taranaki Rugby Football Union - raise awareness of host responsibility supported by a rebate system including - teams travelling by bus; free after-function meals; food and non-alcoholic beverages being provided in changing rooms; responsible driver pick up; not promoting alcohol as a prize; enforcing no alcohol for players under 18 years.

Benefits

The project:

demonstrates visible community leadership and presents a collective message that alcohol misuse and its associated harms are not desirable
helps integrate alcohol-related activities undertaken by the council and its partner agencies
takes a whole-of-community approach
addresses alcohol abuse among councillors and staff
raises awareness of the social and community impacts of alcohol abuse
demonstrates the value of community consultation
brought a range of local groups and agencies together to prevent alcohol-related harm
enhances council’s ability to enforce rules and regulations
reduces alcohol-fuelled crime and anti-social behaviour (e.g. littering, wilful damage and graffiti)
delivers a cost savings as less clean up and reactive policing is required
increases guidance for decision makers and for alcohol suppliers
empowers behavioural change through education and health promotion rather than increased regulation
The programme is reducing the number of violent incidents by improving communication between licensed premises and the police about potentially difficult patrons during the evenings.

Conclusion

The key to the success of this project has been stakeholder management. The initiative responded to a defined need in the community and a desire to develop a shared approach to addressing New Plymouth District’s drinking issues. The integrated thinking has forged new alliances and new ways of dealing with old problems.

The scope, boundaries and parameters of the project were defined by the stakeholders, and each organisation involved owned the process as its own.

While the success of the whole strategy lies in the willingness of all participants to maintain their contributions, the collaborative approach reinforces this. To date, work reflects the strong commitment of all the stakeholders across the community, local and central government.

(1) Wiggers, J., & Murray, S. (2005) "Alco-Link: Presentation to Working Together Conference 2005. Auckland" ALAC.

(2) New Zealand Police (2006) "New Zealand Police Alcohol Action Plan" Wellington: New Zealand Police.

(3) Crime Prevention Unit (2006) "Initiatives for Safer Communities" Presentation to Safer Communities Conference, August 2006.

(4) Geoffrey Palmer Speech to Nelson Police Force, 24 April 2009

(5) New Zealand Police "Alco-link report New Plymouth Area 2007" Provided 15 January 2008

(6) ibid

(7) ibid

(8) Taranaki District Health Board (2006) "Key Findings from the 2006 New Zealand Health Survey for Taranaki" Health Promotion Unit, Public Health, Taranaki District Health Board. Hazardous drinking is an established pattern of drinking that carries a high risk of future damage to physical or mental health and can have a detrimental effect on family life, wellbeing and community welfare.

(9) Taranaki District Health Board: Provisional data: Number of publicly funded discharges for patients domiciled in Taranaki DHB, with any ICD-10 v1 diagnosis of mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol (F10), by age, sex, and financial year. Data extracted 29 November 2007

(10) Connor, J., Broad, J., Jackson, R., Vander Hoor, S., & Rehm, J. (2004) The burden of death, disease and disability due to alcohol in New Zealand Wellington, ALAC

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