CAYAD challenges a liquor licence in Christchurch

On 7 July, Yankee Bourbon on Ferry Rd will close for the last time. The Press reported this week that the Ōtautahi outlet is closing after eight years of community advocacy and seventeen public objections to a new licence application.

According to The Press, Yankee Bourbon was known for its own-brand cheap spirits, including litre bottles of whiskey for $31.99 and litre bottles of vodka for $9.99. The outlet was located in an area with a deprivation index of eight, directly across the road from a neighbourhood with a deprivation index of ten.

Community Action on Youth and Drugs Ōtautahi (CAYAD) is one of seven programme areas delivered by Waipuna Youth Services. The advocacy described by The Press has been led by the Waipuna community action team in Ōtautahi over many years, alongside local residents, public health voices, and partner agencies.

Why this matters across Waipuna

Waipuna delivers wraparound support for rangatahi and their whānau across Ōtautahi Christchurch. Its work spans Experiential Learning, reintegration through Te Whare Hāpai Tāngata, employment support, health and wellbeing including mental health counselling, young parent support, community action, and early childhood education through Little Owls Preschool. The young people Waipuna walks alongside live in the same neighbourhoods affected by outlets like the one The Press has written about.

Alcohol harm is not evenly distributed. It concentrates in communities that are already carrying more than their share.

‘It’s not inevitable that lower income communities have high levels of alcohol harm.’

Paul McMahon, Community Action on Youth and Drugs Ōtautahi

That sentence sits at the centre of why community action matters.

A win that belongs to the community

Credit for this outcome sits with the local people who put their names to the objections, with the Waipuna CAYAD Ōtautahi team who have pushed for change over eight years, and with residents who refused to accept that this was simply how their neighbourhood had to look. The conditions that shape a community are not fixed. They are made, and they can be remade.

Eight years is a long time to keep showing up. Rangatahi and whānau know better than anyone what a quieter neighbourhood feels like.