He may have stepped back from a policy which would effectively ban sales of psychoactive substances in Central Otago but Mayor Tony Lepper says the battle is far from over.
The Central Otago District Council yesterday adopted a draft local approved products policy (Lapp). Under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, councils can adopt policies to control where such substances, once approved, are sold.
They could control where the products were sold but had no control over the hours of sale or age limits of buyers and could not prohibit sales within the district, council environmental health officer Ray Applegarth said.
''This [Lapp] is the small window of opportunity we have in control of these substances,'' he said.
Legal advice given to Local Government New Zealand said there was a clear distinction between the power to regulate and the power to prohibit. If the council adopted a policy which effectively banned any retailers by making the ''permitted areas'' for retail premises too small, the court would be likely to treat the policy provision as illegal, Mr Applegarth said.
A public meeting on the subject, in Alexandra in May, attended by more than 130 people, called for the council to implement broad exclusion zones which would do just that - effectively exclude any retailers of the substances in the future. Mr Lepper told the meeting he wanted to make it as hard as possible for the retailers and backed the broad exclusion zones.
Mr Lepper said the 200m ''buffer zones'' around sensitive sites, such as schools, reserves and community halls, in the council's amended draft policy, limited where an approved product retailer could set up. Old Cromwell town centre was a permitted site but the buildings in that historic precinct were owned by the council.
Under the draft policy, there were no permitted areas in Omakau, Ranfurly or Naseby retail centres and although there were permitted areas in Clyde and Alexandra, they would probably be unsuitable locations for a retail outlet. The Clyde one was on a site now occupied by a wastewater treatment plant. Submissions on the draft policy open on July 5 and close on August 8.
