Police call for gates to curb fights, debris and illegal drinking in Christchurch car park

Tuesday, 1 May 2018

A cleaner at work in the South City Shopping Centre car park early on Sunday morning. Despite the signs, people still congregate in the car park to drink before heading to nearby bars.

Drinking, fights and the morning-after debris of broken bottles and vomit – the car park at a central Christchurch mall is 'party central' on weekend nights.

Police have described South City Shopping Centre's Colombo St car park as the worst pre-loading spot in the central city and the place where they dish out the most fines for liquor ban breaches.

The solution, they say, is simple: gates.

The mall's car park is busy on a recent Saturday night with people heading to nearby bars. The car park is a known trouble spot which police regularly patrol.

The car park, which is bordered by Durham St South to the west, had gates before the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The gateposts remain on the Colombo St side.

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The Colombo St car park has a reputation among police as the worst pre-loading spot in the central city.

Police have encouraged mall management to reinstate them and close the car park at night, but to no avail. The shopping centre's manager Geoff Barnett refused to say why or answer any questions from Stuff.

Senior Sergeant Gordon Spite said the car park was a known trouble spot on Friday and Saturday nights.

'We're not security guards, but 'we're putting significant resources into it,' he said.

The gatepost of the old gate that used to close the entrance of the South City Shopping Centre car park before the 2010/11 earthquakes. Police want the gates reinstated.

'It's like party central sometimes. People pull up with a boot-full of booze, set up and have a wee party before they go off to the nightclubs.'

The car park, which features signs informing people it is in a central city liquor ban area, is just around the corner from bars on St Asaph St.

Spite said dozens of people could gather at a time. Police were mainly there to enforce the liquor ban, issuing $250 fines, but there were other problems.

Police describe the mall car park as the worst pre-loading spot in the central city. Discarded bottles and cans of alcohol are routinely found in the car park on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

'I simply don't understand why you'd allow this to happen to your premises,' he said. 'They [the owners] must know.'

'There's rubbish, there's urine. I wouldn't say regular assaults, but there's violence happening in the car park as well.'

The car park and shopping centre is owned by South City Holdings. The company's director, rich-lister John Butterfield said from Fiji he would be in a position to comment when he knew more about the situation.

Spite said police were not 'wasting their time' patrolling the area, as resources could be better used elsewhere.

Crowds queue outside the bars on St Asaph St, the destination for many using the mall car park on weekend nights.

'We're not saying put up a six-foot barbed wire fence … it's the vehicles. Having vehicle access is the problem.'

City councillor Deon Swiggs went for a ride-along with police on a recent Saturday night and saw between 20 and 30 different groups of people drinking in the car park.

'It was intense. As soon as the police were done dealing with one group of people, another car would turn up and do exactly the same thing.'

Swiggs said he planned to talk to mall management about the issue. The council had limited powers to intervene as it was private property, he said.

Colombo St businesses said the litter problem associated with drinking in the area was not confined to the car park.

Kieran Colina, the store manager of the adjacent MusicWorks shop, said it was routine to find discarded bottles and other rubbish on a lane leading to the back of the store on weekend mornings.

The problem had got worse in the past year, he said.

'It sucks to clean up other people's mess.'