An application is in place for a new packaged liquor license (Bottle Shop) at 159-165 Acland St, St Kilda.  This refers to Port Phillip planning application # PDPL/00133/2022.

We as a community feel the following:

1. Alcohol has been the cause of lots of anti-social behaviour on Acland Street (and particularly  right outside of the applicants property). Calls to 000 are made almost daily to Police to deal with drug and alcohol issues.. As quoted by the applicant, “alcohol may be associated with antisocial behaviour and violence, which can result in amenity impacts for local areas.”  “Alcohol-related social disorder is concentrated in areas with extensive night-time economies”, “there are a relatively large number of on-premise venues and restaurants which operate beyond 11pm with 14 of these operating until at least 3am. The late-night venues within the Acland Cluster include a number of bar and/or nightclub style venues with relatively large patron capacity, such as the Village Belle (850 patrons), the Vineyard (428 patrons), Veludo (300 patrons) and Big Mouth (200 patrons). The concentration of late-night venues in the Acland Street Cluster and in nearby clusters along Fitzroy Street, Barkly Street and Carlisle Street make St. Kilda one of Melbourne’s most significant night-time entertainment precincts outside the CBD, along with Swan”

2. We feel that there are more than enough sources for patron to buy alcohol to takeaway.  There are already three packaged liquor stores within 200 meters of the proposed outlet.  Acland Cellars = 60m, Cellabrations St Kilda = 70m,  BWS = 170m.  Adding another source of alcohol in such a small area may exacerbate alcohol related crimes and antisocial behaviour.

3. Consumption of alcohol is above average for St Kilda in the area.  According to  Table 3-3 of CUMMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT report; it shows consumption of harmful use of alcohol within  St Kilda/St Kilda East to be at a high level and well above the state average.

4. The applicant has made assumptions that having another packaged liquor outlet will not make alcohol more accessible.  They have acknowledged that  "antisocial behaviour can and does occur within the Acland Street Cluster and the desire to limit this behaviour is reasonable".  "As observed previously, there are three packaged liquor outlets located within the Acland Street Cluster and packaged liquor can be purchased from a number of existing on-premise venues. That is, packaged liquor is readily available within the Acland Street Cluster until 11pm in the evening. In this context, the proposed packaged liquor outlet’s effect on the accessibility of packaged liquor would be negligible and not sufficient stimulate a material change in the local rate of harmful alcohol consumption.  "

5. Loading Access – Very tight access to the rear of the store via a small lane.  According to the title, the rear access if 8’ wide (2.4384m).  Given that a light commercial vehicle (van) would be the only way to service the deliveries with an average width of 2.2m.  Any larger trucks would not be able to access this property.  See attached document for vehicle sizes.  We are concerned that due to the size of the packaged liquor store, large trucks will not be able to deliver to the rear of the store, and drivers may prefer to deliver goods through the front door (Acland St).  Given that there is a tram stop right outside of the front door, there will be no room for deliveries and they will be obstructing pedestrian access.

6. The applicant has claimed that "the proposed retail use and development presents a positive opportunity to rejuvenate the Acland Street retail strip consistent with Activity Centre objectives and current economic revitalisation initiatives".  
"the proposal is expected to result in net community benefit and it is considered that favourable assessment is warranted.”  We as a community feel that this is not the case.  We feel that this store will not diversify the offering of Acland St, and may in fact cause community issues due to making alcohol more accessible.

This petition aims to show council and the licensing board the community response to this application. We feel that this application should be rejected.