Bottled up

By Bridget Cook
THE local community will now play an active role in deciding the location of new bottle shops in the area.
New packaged liquor bottle shops in the City of Casey will now be required to apply for planning approval after a change to planning permit requirements approved last week by the State Government.
The changes come in the same week that the council objected to an application for a Dan Murphy’s liquor outlet in Lyndhurst at a planning committee meeting.
The council rejected the application as it believed that if it granted the packaged liquor licence it would be conducive to and encourage the misuse and abuse of alcohol, as well as be detrimental to the amenity of the area.
The report tabled at the meeting noted that there are 13 packaged liquor licenses’ in Cranbourne, six in Hampton Park, four in Doveton and Hallam and two in Lyndhurst and Lynbrook.
The report also showed that Casey had the second highest assault rate in Victoria, with an average of more than 31 incidents a week. There was also a 22.9 per cent increase in the number of alcohol-related family violence incidents in Casey from 941 in 2009, to 1157 in 2010.
This was one of the main reasons councillors knocked back the application.
South Eastern Metropolitan State Member Inga Peulich welcomed the change in planning permit requirements and said bottle shops and retail outlets selling packaged liquor would no longer be exempted from planning .
“The Coalition is delivering on its election commitment to require bottle shops to justify their presence in the community in the same way as other licensed premises,” Ms Peulich said.
She said previously local communities were shut out of the planning process because bottle shops were exempt from planning laws.
“The Coalition Government’s new permit requirement will be supported with guidelines to help councils assess the cumulative impact of bottle shops in a local community,” Ms Peulich said.
“These new guidelines will also be able to be used to help councils assess the impact of other licensed premises within a locality such as hotels and nightclubs.”
“The Coalition’s actions bring to an end the era of bottle shops being allowed to set up in inappropriate locations with no regard to the views of families living nearby.”