Feedback sought on Joint Alcohol Strategy

Published: 15 August 2017

Napier City Council is joining forces with Hastings District Council on a Joint Alcohol Strategy for our region. Over the next few weeks, we'll be seeking public feedback on the revised strategy - and how we can best promote a safe drinking culture.

Napier City Council staff take the One for One message to the streets

The promotion of a safe drinking culture in both Napier and Hastings is something the cities’ Councils are keen to support – and they're just as keen to hear the community’s ideas on how that can be achieved.

Today marks day one of consultation on the revised Joint Alcohol Strategy, first adopted by Napier City and Hastings District Councils in 2011.

Feedback on the revised strategy, which covers the period 2017-22, will be accepted up until Friday 8 September. The key questions asked of people wishing to comment on the revised strategy are: how should the Councils encourage safe and responsible drinking environments, and what role can they play in promoting a safe drinking culture?

One thing that has not changed in either the original or the revised Strategy is its vision of safe and healthy communities, free from alcohol-related harm.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton: “The revised strategy closely aligns with the Safe Communities (Safer Napier and Safer Hastings) goal to reduce alcohol-related harm. When you consider that one in four hospital admissions in Hawke’s Bay is alcohol-related, we must do everything we can to shrink this rate too."

The revised strategy will provide both Councils with a clear framework to guide initiatives working towards this vision, says Napier Mayor Bill Dalton. “The revised strategy closely aligns with the Safe Communities (Safer Napier and Safer Hastings) goal to reduce alcohol-related harm. When you consider that one in four hospital admissions in Hawke’s Bay is alcohol-related, we must do everything we can to shrink this rate too,” he says.

“Harmful alcohol consumption rates are higher in Hawke’s Bay than nationally, and so this strategy takes a multi-faceted approach aimed at changing attitudes towards alcohol in our communities,” says Hastings’ Acting Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst. “By promoting safe, responsible drinking behaviours, we hope to reduce tolerance for hazardous drinking and the harm it causes.”

The local One for One campaign is an example of ideas inspired by the strategy, and one which has been achieved in partnership with the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board.

Over the last two years NCC and HDC staff attended events and handed out free bottles of water to punters in an effort to encourage them to drink water in between each alcoholic beverage. Alongside this event-goers were encouraged to do a drink check ‘scratchie’ quiz which had a lot of them thinking and talking about their drinking levels.

The results of the feedback on the revised strategy and recommendations will be reported back to the Councils soon after the feedback closure date.

Have your say by visiting www.napier.govt.nz/say-it keyword #talkalcohol, or at myvoicemychoice.co.nz. The consultation period ends on Friday 8 September.

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