The proposal to ban "sugar-sweetened beverages" at many council-owned venues goes before the Palmerston North City Council on Wednesday. Photo: 123RF
A proposal to ban the sale of fizzy and other sugary drinks at some Palmerston North venues could go flat this week if councillors sour on the move.
The proposal to ban "sugar-sweetened beverages" at many council-owned venues goes before the Palmerston North City Council on Wednesday.
But Mayor Grant Smith has already called the move a "bit of an overreach" and public submissions last year were mostly against it.
Comments from public submissions included: "If someone wants to have a nice glass of Coke while they attend an event, let them," and, "It's not your business. Stay in your lane, council."
The ban was already in place at the city library and community centres, but the proposal would extend that, including Arena Manawatū, which hosts concerts and sports.
It's part of the council's proposed health promotion policy, which also includes smokefree and vapefree outdoor policies and a sun protection policy.
Smith has said he supported these policies, but thought people should be able to choose to buy sugary drinks.
"What will they ban next? Food? Alcohol?" he told Checkpoint in February.
"It would make us quite unattractive, so I'm hoping that people can see common sense."
The proposal to ban the sale of sugary drinks did not extend to alcohol, including wine and RTDs, which are full of sugar.
Palmerston North City Council. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
RNZ asked the council why alcohol was excluded from the proposal, but did not receive a reply.
"The policy promotes alternatives to SSBs [sugar-sweetened beverages] such as water, 100 percent fruit juice, unsweetened milk, artificially sweetened carbonated drinks and zero-sugar carbonated drinks," according to a council agenda paper, released ahead of Wednesday's meeting.
As well as non-zero-sugar fizzy drinks, sugar-sweetened beverages include sachet mixes, fruit drinks, cordials, flavoured milk, cold tea or coffee, energy drinks and sports drinks.
The agenda said the present policy encouraged venues apart from the library and community centres not to sell fizzy drinks on a voluntary basis, and that was already happening, except at public swimming pool the Lido.
"[The arena], the largest venue in the city, has not sold [sugar-sweetened beverages] since January of 2020, when the catering contract was negotiated in line with the policy in place at that time," it said.
"The draft policy is therefore a continuation of the current policy position of the council on healthy beverages, rather than the introduction of new policy or provision...
"Because the policy only affects the sale of these drinks at council facilities and events, people can still bring their own sugary drinks for personal consumption, as long as they comply with other rules and limits described by individual venues."
Among the options suggested for the sugary-drink part of the wider proposals was adopting the ban on sales, rejecting it in full, banning the sale at specific venues or events, or allowing their sale so long as healthy options are also available.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
