They’re at it again

The Herald reports:

A school fundraiser faces a battle with bureacracy to continue to sell alcohol after a medical officer objected to the event which has been running for 10 years.

The Napier District Licensing Committee will tomorrow hear an objection to plans to sell liquor at a suburban Hawke’s Bay school fundraising event.

The objection has been lodged by the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board against an application by Port Ahuriri School to sell liquor over the three-and-a-half hours of its Food and Music Festival in the school grounds on the evening of Friday, November 9.

It will be the fourth year in a row the selling of liquor at the event has been opposed by the board through Medical Officer of Health Dr Rachel Eyre, who argued the consumption of alcohol on school grounds in the presence of children was inappropriate.

The application was not opposed by the police and no concerns have been raised by Napier City Council licensing inspector Darryn Waugh.

Eyre said her view held it was inappropriate to have liquor on school grounds consumed in the presence of minors and this view was shared by Medical Officers of Health throughout the country.

Oh nonsense. It’s a food and music festival. There are problems with alcohol in this country but it isn’t parents having a glass of wine at a festival in front of their kids.

Do these interfering MOHs realise that shock horror most parents drink alcohol at home in front of their kids. Parents have wine with dinner. They have a beer at a bbq.

But this DHB spent God knows how much money preparing 700 pages of objection to this licence application. Hospitals are crying out for more money, and they spent their precious health dollars on this.