Alcohol ban extended in Trafalgar Park after rising disorder
Increasing disorderly behaviour by a group drinking at Trafalgar Park, including an assault, spitting at an elderly woman and performing a haka on the field as the Tasman Mako trained, has seen the city’s alcohol ban extended.
At its final meeting before the local body elections, Nelson city councillors accepted a request by police to extend the central city 24-hour alcohol ban to cover the park, including a bus stop on Trafalgar St where there had also been problems. A bylaw currently bans alcohol in the area from 7pm-9am.
Official and approved functions at the park have alcohol licences that will not be affected by the ban extension.
Police told the council that a group of up to 20 people gathered to drink regularly at the park’s Maitai Gate area, near the riverside walk, sometimes for up to 15 hours a day.
They said police and park users had been regularly abused and intimidated, an elderly woman had been spat on, and there had been a report of a group drinking, fighting and going onto the main field to perform a haka as the Tasman Mako trained.
Four people had been arrested in the area recently for intoxication, police said.
Nelson City Brass Band, the Nelson and Marist rugby clubs and the Tasman Rugby Union have buildings in the area and told the council the group became unruly and hostile after drinking, and passers-by did not feel safe.
They said a member of the public who helped with rugby training had been assaulted in the area.
Sergeant Steve Savage told the Nelson Mail that during the incident involving the Mako on the main field, the players had not felt threatened, but the actions were inappropriate and unnecessary.
Savage said the group had a similar make-up to the one that caused disorder at Anzac Park before police started enforcing the liquor ban two years ago. When he walked past Anzac Park now people were having picnics, which showed that the measure worked.
The ban, under the council’s urban environments bylaw, allowed police to prevent potential problems because they had the powers to remove alcohol, issue fines and arrest those not complying.
Savage said there was always a risk the group would move elsewhere. But police could apply to extend the ban if there was evidence of increasing disorder.
He expected the Trafalgar Park ban would take effect soon, following an advertisement period. Police would initially take an education approach towards those drinking in the area.
Savage said he had regular discussions and “quite a good relationship” with the group’s leaders who had promised the behaviour would improve. But it had instead deteriorated since August last year.
The ban would not stop the group gathering socially in the area without drinking.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith said the group’s behaviour had been “totally unacceptable”. “It’s the antithesis of what we want in a warm and friendly city.”
Cr Matty Anderson said he supported the ban extension but said he was disappointed that the council had not tried harder to engage with the group.
He knew some of them and had been down to the area to talk to them.
“They are sons and dads … they tell me about their kids. It’s (the behaviour) all trauma informed.
“We are just smashing them again, sending them somewhere else.”
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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