Children walking to school with no kai in their bellies are having to pass their parents queuing to buy alcohol from the liquor store.

This was one of the heartbreaking stories of alcohol-related harm heard by members of the Eastern Bay Local Alcohol Policy hearings panel on Wednesday.

The draft policy, developed by a joint working group from Ōpōtiki, Kawerau and Whakatāne district councils, aligns maximum trading hours across the districts and extends the definition of sensitive sites to include schools, childcare facilities and playgrounds, places of worship, marae and medical centres.

A public consultation period in April drew 54 submissions – 36 from Kawerau, eight from Whakatāne district and two from Ōpōtiki, with a further eight submissions pertaining to all three districts.

Trading hours currently differ across the three districts and 51 per cent of submitters agreed to the proposed hours of 9am to 10pm for off-licence stores - with the exception of supermarkets, which would be 8am to 10pm - and 9am to midnight for on-licence businesses and clubs.

After a discussion on supermarket trading hours in February, Whakatāne District Council said it wanted to see the hours aligned with those proposed for other off-licences.

Whakaatu Whanaunga Trust youth mentor and Community Action on Youth and Drugs co-ordinator Tikiahi Brown-Davis addressed the panel of Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne and Kawerau councillors on some of the issues and effects alcohol was having on families in Ōpōtiki.

To kickstart his submission, Mr Brown-Davis pointed out that Ōpōtiki had one of the highest number of liquor outlets per capita.

"Ōpōtiki has 14 liquor outlets ... Ōpōtiki has a population of 9300. That's a lot of alcohol outlets for such a small community,” he said.

These include six on-licence premises, four off-licence premises and several clubs.

'Ōpōtiki doesn't need more liquor stores. Ōpōtiki needs rehabilitation, and drug and alcohol support facilities.”

He also raised concerns about the liquor outlets' proximity to schools.

'There needs to be a buffer zone around our schools and kindergartens.”

He said from Ōpōtiki College, it was a 230-metre walk to the nearest liquor outlet. There was also a sports club on the school grounds that held a liquor licence, which he felt did not make sense.

'I don't know how that came about or how that happened, but it is one of the things that a lot of people in our community wanted me to bring up.”

'On the other side of town with St Josephs (Catholic School); within 170 metres there's a liquor store.”

The hours these stores were able to operate under the Sale of Liquor Act, which for supermarkets was from 7am, meant children walking to school had to pass people lining up to buy alcohol.

'We've had a lot of community feedback from parents saying that the liquor stores open too early, so we've got parents lining up outside the liquor stores first thing in the morning and their kids are going to school with no lunch.”

He said children also had to walk over broken beer bottles on the footpaths.

'A lot of the kids in our community don't have shoes and they're walking to school where there's broken glass all over the footpaths.”

He said he was well aware of the social harm caused by alcohol, such as domestic violence, because it fell on his desk to work with these issues.

The panel heard speakers from Foodstuffs (New World, Four Square and Liquorland) and General Distributors (Countdown supermarkets) and Super Liquor who all oppose the draft policy reducing the maximum allowable opening time from the 7am outlined in the Act.

Foodstuffs' Iain Thain said it would only inconvenience shoppers who wanted to do their shopping earlier.

'It would be unreasonable because there is no evidence to show that the sale of alcohol from supermarkets and grocery stores between 7am and 8am leads to any alcohol-related harm as compared with the sale of alcohol at any other time of the day.”

Health improvement adviser for Toi te Ora Public Health Eliot Fenton said while restrictions in trading hours were sought by the health ministry, given the choice, it would prefer to see earlier closing times at night than in the morning. Toi te Ora recommended off-licence outlets be restricted to 9pm. It also asked for the restriction of external advertising on off-licences, no new liquor outlets in industrial areas and in areas of high deprivation.

The hearing committee is chaired by Ōpōtiki deputy mayor Shona Browne and members include Ōpōtiki district councillor Barry Howe, Kawerau district councillors Carolyn Ion and Sela Kingi and Whakatāne district councillors Gavin Dennis, John Pullar and Toni Boynton.

Following the hearing of submissions, the committee will deliberate and decide whether there will be any changes to the draft plan. A report will then be provided to each of the councils, which will each vote on whether to adopt the plan.

-Public interest journalism funded through NZ on Air.