It was opposed by the council\u2019s licensing inspector and one member of the public, along with police and the Medical Officer of Health Dr Michael Radford.<\/p>\n
A hearing before the District Licensing Committee is to be held on Thursday.<\/p>\n
David Power, Hawke\u2019s Bay Police alcohol harm prevention officer, said the application does not take into account Flaxmere is \u201ca high deprivation community vulnerable to alcohol related harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
Radford said the primary reason for Health New Zealand\u2019s opposition to granting the off-licence was the positioning of the sale of alcohol aisle.<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand\u2019s primary opposition to granting the off-licence is the positioning of alcohol aisle at the front of the store, but the company says it’s far better than having it tucked away at the rear of the building.<\/p>\n
The alcohol is in \u201cAisle 1 adjacent to self-checkout, creating a thoroughfare effect, between the main body of the premises and the points of sale and is readily accessible and creates a dwell zone effect (queuing at self-checkout alongside the alcohol aisle), leading to routine and repeated exposure for shoppers, including children\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he did not allege \u201cpoor character or a lack of corporate systems\u201d but was concerned that the application for the site was generic and not designed for a \u201chighly vulnerable locality\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a Right of Reply provided to the committee before the hearing, General Distributors said the supermarket had been carefully designed for the community and its aspirations for investment and revitalisation of the town centre. <\/p>\n
\u201cWoolworths is incredibly proud to be part of this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
General Distributors disputed the positioning of the alcohol aisle, saying it was \u201cclearly not the most direct pedestrian route for shoppers entering the store or moving between the main body of the premises and the points of sale and does not create a \u2018thoroughfare\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said it was in a highly visible position where staff would be close by regularly on their shifts, and it was much better than tucking it away at the rear of the shop.<\/p>\n
They said the cost of being forced to move it would be $2.5 million to $5 million. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Keefe said the Woolworths would be far more than just a place to buy alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community has already embraced Woolworths. Our people are lining up for jobs, it will be a place where you go to shop for kai and see your friends and family working.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Flaxmere desperately needed a supermarket and people needed to take responsibility for what they spent their money on.<\/p>\n
Flaxmere ward councillor Henare O’Keefe says the suburb of Hastings desperately needs the Woolworths Flaxmere supermarket. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a turnaround for the councillor, well known for his anti alcohol views.<\/p>\n
In 2019, O\u2019Keefe opposed a successful bid by the owners of the Flaxmere Liquor store to renew their licence. He was later ordered by the court to pay the liquor store owner costs of $8000.<\/p>\n
He said supermarkets were different from liquor stores. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason people visit liquor stores is to buy alcohol. Not so in a supermarket.\u201d <\/p>\n
O\u2019Keefe said a lot of \u201cgrinding work\u201d had gone into getting the Woolworths Flaxmere supermarket off the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love our people, but it\u2019s time to take personal responsibility. If you are going to partake in alcohol, do it in a way that doesn\u2019t affect your family or your work.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said people needed to have patience and tolerance when it came to alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see someone partaking and making trouble, tell them. Put some peer pressure on them or get them some help. It\u2019s about looking out for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council recently approved a master plan for Flaxmere, years in the making, including new roads, shops and a vibrant town centre.<\/p>\n
The plan, developed by the village shopping centre\u2019s owners, TW Property and approved by Hastings District Council, will see a new road through the town centre, linking Henderson Rd to Pam O\u2019Keefe Ave and improved public spaces.<\/p>\n
In June 2025, the council added additional changes to Hastings\u2019 revised Local Alcohol Policy (LAP), including earlier closing times for off-licences and new trading hours for supermarkets and grocery stores.<\/p>\n
It also said there would be no more bottle store licences granted to premises in Flaxmere and Camberley.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was opposed by the council\u2019s licensing inspector and one member of the public, along with police and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20784,5750,138,15124,9850,5275,5194,134,35698,19339,111,139,69,217742,38631,675,13311,97,61,92,80],"class_list":["post-424538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alcohol","tag-application","tag-business","tag-fight","tag-flaxmere","tag-goes","tag-hastings","tag-health","tag-hearing","tag-licence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offlicence","tag-opposing","tag-police","tag-sell","tag-supermarket","tag-to","tag-woolworths","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}