Policy on Legal High Sale Areas Adopted

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Council Resolves Policy around Legal Highs

From Auckland Council:

Auckland’s legal high sale areas agreed

Areas where the sale of psychoactive substances, otherwise known as legal highs, will be allowed in Auckland have been agreed by Auckland Council today.

The council’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee approved the proposed Local Approved Product Policy (LAPP), which will prevent the sale of products near vulnerable communities, schools, or treatment centres for mental health issues or substance abuse.

Retail licenses to sell government approved products will be guided by the policy which was developed with stakeholders and a public consultation and hearings process. Licenses will be issued by the psychoactive substances regulatory authority, not Auckland Council.

Councillor Linda Cooper, Chair of the LAPP Hearings panel, says that the policy had to find a balance between respecting the legal right for shops to sell the products and the need to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

“From our work in consultation with Aucklanders, we quickly found that many people wanted the products banned outright,” she says.

“However as it is the Government licensing the products, we could only act within the legal parameters that were set, which meant controlling the areas where the products could be sold.

“So we have tried to find a balance between the legal rights of retailers to sell the products while keeping the most vulnerable away from easy access to them.

“I am pleased with the policy and with the committee’s decision to adopt it, and hope it will go some way to protecting those in our community who need it most.”

It is expected that the government will begin licensing the products again later this year, while the policy will be reviewed by the council in two years.

Further Information

The policy specifies:

Auckland general – except for the city centre

 

  1. For all areas of Auckland, apart from the city centre, licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in:
  • areas of high deprivation – deprivation 10, 9 and 8
  • neighbourhood centers
  • within 500m of a school teaching students year seven and above
  • within 200m of a school teaching students between years one and six inclusive
  • within 500m of a mental health or addiction treatment center
  • within 500m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence
  •  within 100m of an marae
  1. For all areas of Auckland, apart from the city centre, licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in the following special restricted areas: (areas identified as special restricted areas are shown in Appendix One)
  • Hunters corner commercial area – Papatoetoe
  • Manurewa commercial Area – Manurewa
  • Mt Wellington Highway / Waipuna road commercial area – Mt Wellington
  • Papakura Caravan Park commercial area – Papakura
  • Don Buck road / Triangle road commercial area – Henderson
  • Manukau Station road commercial area – Manukau
  • Te Hana commercial area – Rodney

Auckland city centre restrictions

  • For the city centre it is proposed that licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in:
  1. areas of residential deprivation
  2. within 200m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence.

—-ends—–

March ’15 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking

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Again a good month for Talking Auckland with new records set in Monthly readership.

My thanks to readers and commenters both old and new.

Without you Talking Auckland simply does not happen.

April looks to be a relatively quiet month with the Port issue being dealt with in the Auckland Development Committee today.

My Unitary Plan mediation and Hearings start in May so I will be busy going through the Council marked version of the the Transport topic in a couple of weeks.

Also I see Auckland Transport is finally getting its backside into gear over the successive weeks of train failures ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11426521 )

But again my thanks to you and as always you got a burning topic you like to write on or maybe I write on let me know 😀 .

Ken's avatarOpen Parachute

BlogThere are now over 300 blogs on the list, although I am weeding out those which are no longer active or have removed public access to sitemeters. (Let me know if I weed out yours by mistake, or get your stats wrong).

Every month I get queries from people wanting their own blog included. I encourage and am happy to respond to queries but have prepared a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) people can check out. Have a look at NZ Blog Rankings FAQ. This is particularly helpful to those wondering how to set up sitemeters.

Please note, the system is automatic and relies on blogs having sitemeters which allow public access to the stats.

Here are the rankings of New Zealand blogs with publicly available statistics for March 2015. Ranking is by visit numbers. I have listed the blogs in the table below, together with monthly visits and page view numbers.

View original post 1,594 more words

If Travelling on the North Western Motorway This Easter

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Major works on the Northwestern Motorway
Thurs 2 April to Tues 7 April 2015 (Easter weekend)

Just in case your are staying in Auckland this weekend and were thinking about travelling to St Lukes or into the city here is some information about road closures and restrictions.

1. St Lukes Rd bridge closed from 8pm Thurs 2 Apr to 5am Tues 7 Apr

The St Lukes Road bridge will be closed to vehicles to safely build up the existing road levels and construct the approaches to the new, higher bridge. Pedestrian access across the bridge, the cycleway, motorway, local roads and public transport links in the area will remain open throughout the weekend.

Attractions such as MOTAT and Auckland Zoo will be unaffected and are open as usual with their planned events during the Easter weekend please see www.MOTAT.org.nz and www.aucklandzoo.co.nz for more information. Regular parking will be available.

2. Te Atatu interchange lane restrictions from 10pm Thurs 2 Apr to 5am Tues 7 Apr

In the Te Atatu area there will be a number of lane restrictions during the weekend. Both of the citybound onramps will be closed and the citybound motorway will be reduced to one lane during the day (5am to 10pm) and closed each night (10pm to 5am).

These closures are necessary to lower the Te Atatu citybound motorway on-ramp and raise a portion of the motorway, near the bridge.

Once open on Tuesday 7 April, the two left hand motorway lanes underneath Te Atatu Road overbridge will be moved slightly to the north with the third lane remaining in the same location. This will tie in with the recent citybound lane changes between Te Atatu and Rosebank Roads.

Detour routes and more information

The Northwestern cycleway will remain open throughout the weekend. More information about the closures and the detour routes are available on our website www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/wrr

A thanks to Councillor Linda Cooper for originally sticking the above up on her Facebook page.